The 'Burdens'
Above is a chart featuring calculations and projections as to the cost of providing fitting, specialized education for 27 blind students in Missouri public schooling. The ‘feeble blind,’ that is, those individuals born without the faculty of sight, or otherwise extremely limited vision, were targets of eugenic sterilization. While the above chart does not necessarily advocate any action in and of itself, it would likely be used in an attempt to press for genetic sterilizations of the blind, due to their offspring’s likely monetary burden on society, or, in more extreme cases, the euthanasia of certain individuals suffering from blindness, to immediately alleviate the aforementioned burden. Similar charts to similar ends were also created for others deemed genetically inferior, such as the deaf and crippled.
Though the objective of this was to remove specific ‘degenerate plasms’ from the gene pool, many some disorders, such as epilepsy, were spuriously attributed to certain genes and pedigrees when, in fact, very little is known about the acquisition of epilepsy. To such ends, Lucien Howe, an ophthalmologist working for the American Medical association, conducted a study on the inheriting of blindness, and upon the conclusion of the study, he began to lobby for a bill that would call the government to restrict the union of couples that both were believed to possess the gene for hereditary blindness ("Eugenics Archive").
Though the objective of this was to remove specific ‘degenerate plasms’ from the gene pool, many some disorders, such as epilepsy, were spuriously attributed to certain genes and pedigrees when, in fact, very little is known about the acquisition of epilepsy. To such ends, Lucien Howe, an ophthalmologist working for the American Medical association, conducted a study on the inheriting of blindness, and upon the conclusion of the study, he began to lobby for a bill that would call the government to restrict the union of couples that both were believed to possess the gene for hereditary blindness ("Eugenics Archive").