Dysgenics
Dysgenics (also called cacogenics)[1] is the belief that peoples' genes may get worse over the course of generations.[2]
The adjective "dysgenics" is the antonym of "eugenics". It was first used about 1915 by David Starr Jordan. He thought there might be dysgenic effects in World War I.[3] Jordan believed that healthy men were as likely to die in modern warfare as anyone else and that war killed only the physically healthy men of the populace whilst preserving the disabled at home.[4]
The theme was picked up more recently.[5] Neither version has been proved.
References
- ↑ "cacogenics". Freedictionary.com. Retrieved 2008-06-29.
Cacogenics, is the study of factors producing more defective or disadvantageous genes in offspring.
- ↑ "Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and hundreds more". www.bartleby.com. Archived from the original on 2009-03-18.
- ↑ Oxford English Dictionary
- ↑ Jordan, David Starr (2003). War and the breed: the relation of war to the downfall of nations (Reprint ed.). Honolulu, Hawaii: University Press of the Pacific. ISBN 978-1-4102-0900-9.
- ↑ Richards, Lynn 1996. Dysgenics: genetic deterioration in modern populations. Westport, CT: Praeger.