AN OVERVIEW OF THE CONCEPT OF EUGENICS

Abstract

The concept of eugenics, which was introduced to the literature by Galton in the 1880s, occupied an important place in political debates until the end of the Second World War. The essence of the concept is the effort to develop the qualitative characteristics of a race or nation. The first suggestions put forward regarding eugenics were to encourage the proliferation of beneficial groups in society and to restrict the birth of children by groups deemed harmful, depending on the laws of heredity. The premise of eugenics in Germany, which would become the mainstay of Nazi racial theory after 1933, was racial hygiene. Racial hygiene is a movement that advocates not helping the weak and that public health can be improved by killing those born unhealthy or handicapped. This view, which did not find social and political support until the Third Reich period, was radicalized after Hitler came to power, and the defenders of this view came to important positions in the state. With the enacted laws, negative eugenics policies were implemented in the harshest form. The concept of eugenics started to be discussed in Turkey in these years and public health became a state policy. Although negative eugenics was advocated in some media, these suggestions were not taken into account and the state did not turn to negative eugenics practices, which is a tool of racism.