Buck v. Bell

Eugenics is a social and scientific theory that promotes the improvement of the human race through selective breeding. The idea became popular during the late nineteenth century; Sir Francis Galton is recognized as the "intellectual father of modern eugenics"; Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection in 1859 introduced the concepts behind eugenics.

Eugenics concepts have been applied in many different ways. One program may seek to increase the number of individuals with positive genetic traits, such as high intelligence and physical strength. In the United States and Europe, several thousand children are born annually to women artificially inseminated with donor sperm of men possessing these qualities.

A program seeking to reduce the number of members of society with major genetic problems may involve the mandatory sterilization of persons exhibiting such handicaps, thereby preventing reproduction. This is a negative eugenic program. Hitler's program to wipe out the Jewish people during World War II was perhaps the most terrible example of negative eugenics.

Scientific advances in in vitro fertilization, embryo transfer, and other fertility methods may increase the control a society has in determining the characteristics of future generations.