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Eugenics — Medical or Social Science?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Peter Weingart
Peter Weingart
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Institute for Science and Technology StudiesUniversity of Bielefeld
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Abstract

Eugenics is the paradigmatic case of the conflict between biology and medicine over social influence. Commenting on as essay by Debora Kamrat–Lang(1995), the paper reconstructs the historical roots of eugenics as a form of preventive medicine. A comparision between the development of some crucial aspects of eugenics between Germany and the United States reveals that the prevalence of the value placed on the individual over hereditary health of a population ultimately determined the outcome of the conflict but collective concepts may be revived by new biological knowledge

Type
Article
Information
Science in Context , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , Spring 1995 , pp. 197 - 207
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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