Eugenicists and Progressives

A reader in this space expressed surprise that I would list “eugenics” along with  contraception, abortion, euthanasia as a part of the same vague cloud of generally Progressive social movements that include liberal politics and secular humanism.

One must confess that who is a member of which group is a matter of judgment, or even speculation. The metes and bounds are not sharply defined. Nonetheless, I suggest that there are enough famous voices on the secular side of the issue, and sufficiently authoritative voices on the clerical side, to make the matter somewhat unambiguous.

Below are quotes from Malthus, Darwin, Margaret Sanger, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Konrad Lorentz, Bertrand Russell, H.G. Wells, and George Bernard Shaw.

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