On the history of French eugenics
by
Drouard A.
DCMB Group, Department of Biology,
Duke University,
Durham, Box 91000,
North Carolina 27708-1000, USA.
gillham@duke.edu
Hippokrates (Helsinki). 1998;(15):79-90.

ABSTRACT

The French Eugenical Society was founded in 1913, but eugenics had been actively discussed already much earlier, although under varing names. The main protagonists of early French eugenics were Georges Vacher de Lapouge, who was inspired by Galton and socialism, Adolphe Pinard, who propagated the "puericulture", and Paul Robin, who represented neo-malthusianism in his country. Alexis Carrel's ideas on improving the human race became widespread especially through his book "Man, the Unknown", published simultaneously in French and English in 1935. In general, the French eugenicists were more in favour of positive eugenics than negative selection, including sterilization, but their general influence was weaker than in several other countries.

Eugenics talk
Swiss eugenics
Liberal Eugenics
'Designer babies'
Private eugenics
Psychiatric genetics
Human self-domestication
Selecting potential children
Preimplantation genetic diagnosis
Francis Galton and contemporary eugenics
Gene therapy and performance enhancement
The commercialisation of pre-natal enhancement

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