Eugenics

Programs by which humans are carefully selected for breeding in order to maximise certain qualities, in order to create healthier, stronger and/or more intelligent people, to save resources, and lessen human suffering.

Earlier means of achieving these goals focused on selective breeding, whilst modern ones focus on prenatal testing and screening, genetic counselling, birth control, in vitro fertilization, and genetic engineering.

Since the postwar period, both the public and the scientific communities have often associated eugenics with Nazi abuses, such as enforced racial hygiene, human experimentation, and the extermination of undesired population groups.