A Century of Eugenics in America: From the Indiana Experiment to the Human Genome Era

In 1907, Indiana passed the world's first involuntary sterilization law
based on the theory of eugenics. In time, more than 30 states and a dozen foreign
countries followed suit. Although the Indiana statute was later declared
unconstitutional, other laws restricting immigration and regulating marriage on
"eugenic" grounds were still in effect in the U.S. as late as the 1970s. A
Century of Eugenics in America assesses the history of eugenics in the United States
and its status in the age of the Human Genome Project. The essays explore the early
support of compulsory sterilization by doctors and legislators; the implementation
of eugenic schemes in Indiana, Georgia, California, Minnesota, North Carolina, and
Alabama; the legal and social challenges to sterilization; and the prospects for a
eugenics movement basing its claims on modern genetic science.