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Did you know...

Did you know... there were university-endorsed programs that promoted policies that would allow the mass sterilization of the human race?

Introduction

The Eugenics Record Office (ERO) was a collection service that gathered information about the American population’s genetics. It was established in Cold Spring Harbor, New York by the Department of Genetics at the Carnegie Institution in 1910 and it was placed under the authority of Charles Davenport. Its mission was to collect substantial information on the ancestry of the American population, to produce propaganda that was made to fuel the eugenics movement, and to promote of the idea of race-betterment.

History

            The eugenics movement was an immensely popular in the United States in the twentieth century and viewed as a progressive movement in the United States. One of the leaders of this campaign was biologist and eugenicist Charles Davenport. Davenport was not only the founder but also the director of the ERO. Davenport avidly believed that it was necessary to apply Mendelian Genetics principles to humans. Davenport’s wife, Gertrude Davenport, was also an immensely important figure in this movement and the establishment of the ERO. Gertrude Davenport was an embryologist and a geneticist wrote papers with her husband supporting the idea that Mendelian genetics theories applied to humans.

Supported by the argument that the information collected by the eugenics office was for human genetics research, he convinced the Carnegie Institute to establish the ERO.He was well connected to wealthy people during the time and he lobbied them to finance his vision of the ERO. His list of sponsors included the generous Mary Harriman—widow to a railway tycoon—as well as John D. Rockefeller, and John H. Kellogg. Davenport’s wife, Gertrude Davenport, was also an immensely important figure in this movement and the establishment of the ERO. Gertrude Davenport was an embryologist and a geneticist wrote papers with her husband supporting the idea that Mendelian genetics theories applied to humans.

Another important figure in the ERO and the eugenics movement was superintendent Henry H. Laughlin. He held a position akin to that of an assistant director of the ERO, however before serving in the ERO he served as superintendent of various schools in Iowa. Charles Davenport appointed Laughlin as a head of the ERO due to Laughlin's extensive knowledge about breeding and the implementation of this knowledge in humans. Moreover, Laughlin demonstrated huge support towards the more controversial policies that the ERO wished to implement on the state level.

The ERO also changed names in the 1920s when it merged with the Station for Experimental Evolution and adopted the name of the Department of Genetics of the Carnegie Institute.

Eventually, the ERO closed on December 1939 in part due to the disapproval it received. The information that had been collected by the ERO was distributed amongst other genetic research based organizations and collections services.

Methods

The ERO collected research mostly through questionnaires. These questionnaires would ask questions which that described the characteristics of individual people and their families. these characteristics ranged from physical to temperamental properties. Much of these questionnaires were collected by field workers, usually educated women, who would go door-to-door asking people to fill out this information. One of the reasons that the majority of the field workers were educated women was due to the lack of professions that were available. The most common discipline that most of these women had was a bachelor degree in biology, however, graduate school degrees were not uncommon.

The research collected by these field workers provided much of the information necessary to pass several legislations during the 1920s. Additionally, the ERO had other methods of collecting these questionnaires such as sending them through the mail, and promoting them as methods for families to learn about their genetic lineage and family history.

The ERO disseminated its information and its message via a variety of outlets. These included a journal called, Eugenical News, posters with propaganda full messages about intelligent breeding, and pamphlets with information on the movement.

Controversy

Eugenics was and continues to be a controversial issue due to the pressure radical eugenicists put on the government to pass legislation that would restrict the liberties of the people who had traits that could be considered to be undesirable. Specifically, the ERO dedicated its resources to the restriction of immigrants and the forced sterilization of individuals with undesirable characteristics. They promoted their ideas through the distribution of propaganda that came in the form of images and information packets.

Something else that caused tension within and surrounding the ERO was Henry H. Laughlin's radical policy suggestions. He was known for presenting fraudulent evidence to support policies of forced sterilization and was known for including doctrine-like belief is his ideas.

Furthermore, the rise of Nazism in the 1930s and their use of and belief in eugenics led to large criticism and the ultimate closing of the ERO and their practices.

Did you know

Did you know... One of the first reasons people chose to get rhinoplasty was to hide their immortality?

Article 1

Gaspare Tagliacozzi was one of the pioneers of plastic surgery and considered the "father of plastic surgery" in Europe and introduced the first reconstructive surgery techniques through the writing of the first plastic surgery textbook or handbook. He is most known for his development of a rhinoplasty technique in Europe. His technique rivaled the previously used technique from India, in skin from the forehead was lowered over the nose.

One of the reasons that plastic surgery techniques spread and developed in the West was due to the increase in the incidence of syphilis, since one of the symptoms is causing the nose to fall off. This "saddle nose" side effect in which the skin and cartilage in the nose was eaten away leaving a gaping hole in the middle of the face, was highly looked down upon not only for aesthetic reasons but more importantly because syphilis was a disease that was considered a sign of immorality and sexual promiscuity and therefore people sought ways to hide and change their conditions.

The First World War introduced a large number of techniques and ideas into the field of plastic surgery. Due to the number of new patients that arose as victims of the war––mostly soliders––there was a marked need to restore these people to their original state. One of the reconstructive surgery techniques that was developed and perfected the most was skin grafting in order to correct the disfigurement that the soldiers experienced due to the dangers of warfare. Dr. Harold Gillies was one of the pioneers in perfecting this treatment and introduced innovative techniques into the practice that helped restore the victim's face as close to its original appearance as possible.

The First World War also initiated the opening of centers of surgical training and of specialized centers to recieve treatment. With the increase in the number of European surgeons who performed these surgeries there was a need to establish a guild of physicians in order to share new advancements and information and in 1936 the Société Européenne de Chirurgie Structive was established as the first supranational organization for plastic surgeons.

The First World War also launched the United States of America into a plastic surgery "renaissance" and the American Association of Plastic Surgeons was established in 1921. American surgeons and population seemed to see the the appeal in these reconstructive surgeries for cosmetic purposes and many techniques and advances were made once the First World War was over. In America there seemed to be a shift in percieving plastic surgery as a medical procedure to something that could improve a person's physical "flaws". For example, one of the first surgeries performed after the War ended was a rhinoplasty procedure, merely five years after the War ended.

There had been developments in other field of cosmetic surgery well before the War, such as breast augmentations and reconstructions. The first documented breast augmentation in the United States is a surgery from 1903, performed by Dr. Charles Miller.

SECOND ADDITION:

South Korea is one of the countries with the highest estimated rate of plastic surgery per capita. It is estimated that approximately twenty-five percent of women in South Korea have had some sort of cosmetic procedure. It is not only South Koreans that are seeking cosmetic surgery treatments in Korea, the government of South Korea has actually added tax incentives to promote medical tourism. These incentives––which can make procedures cost a fraction of the price in comparison to other countries––and the reputation that South Korea has garnered has turned out to be a lucrative business with medical tourism earnings reaching 487 billion KRW (approximately 430 million USD) in 2012––triple the amount it was in 2009. The majority of these patients hail from China, the United States, Taiwan, Japan, and other countries.

The most popular surgery is Blepharoplasty, more commonly known as "double-eyelid" surgery. The first person to perform this surgery was the American plastic surgeon Dr. Ralph Millard in the 1950s. It is important to note that althought Dr. Millard was the first American to document in English about the previously mentioned surgery, he was not the first person to perform it in Asia. The overwhelming presence of cosmetic surgery in everyday life can be viewed as a cultural phenomena in modern day South Korea and the aforementioned procedures give rise to many controversies in the global community and are the center of much discussion as people question what is inciting this type of movement.