International Eugenics Conference

Three International Eugenics Congresses took place between 1912 and 1932 and were the global venue for scientists, politicians, and social leaders to plan and discuss the application of programs to improve human heredity in the early twentieth century.

Could not the undesirables be got rid of and the desirables multiplied?”[1] This concept of eugenics - a term he introduced - soon won many adherents, notably in North America and England.

The government under Theodore Roosevelt created a national Heredity Commission that was charged to investigate the genetic heritage of the country and to “(encourage) the increase of families of good blood and (discourage) the vicious elements in the cross-bred American civilization”.

In his opening address Darwin indicated that the introduction of principles of better breeding procedures for humans would require moral courage.

[6] Under American leadership and dominance - forty-one out of fifty-three scientific papers - the work of the eugenists disrupted by World War I in Europe was to resume.

[8] The third meeting was arranged at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City August 22–23, 1932, dedicated to Mary Williamson Averell who had provided significant financial support, and presided by Davenport.

Major Darwin, now 88 years old, was unable to attend but sent a report presented by Ronald Fisher predicting the doom of civilization unless eugenic measures were implemented.