Evolution or Creation?
Birth of Eugenics
• After reading The Origin of the Species, subtitled, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, Darwin's cousin, Francis Galton reasoned that a better breed of men could be produced with proper guidance and "judicious marriages." He wrote in his book, Hereditary Genius, that "it would be quite practicable to produce a highly-gifted race of men by judicious marriages during several consecutive generations."[96]
• Galton coined the term "eugenics" (well born) in 1883, and campaigned extensively for socially engineered marriages which would over several generations produce, he thought, a highly gifted race of people. Galton wanted to limit marriage to the union of well-born partners and prohibit marriages of the "unfit" so that "what Nature does blindly, slowly, and ruthlessly, man may do providently, quickly, and kindly."[96]
• Darwin congratulated Galton on the publication of Hereditary Genius. While Darwin did not distance himself from cousin Galton, contemporary apologists of Darwin do. They seek to distinguish Darwin from those who made unseemly social application of his ideas.[96]