The eugenics movement continued in the United States far past 1911. It was used in the form of racial discrimination even into the 1970s, when Black and Native women, especially those on government aid and with multiple children, underwent forced sterilization when they were threatened with an end to government aid, or were sterilized without their knowledge. There was also a period where black men in Tuskegee Alabama were infected with syphilis or not told they already had it, and were then denied treatment, all without their knowledge, to study the progression of the disease: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskege...lis_experiment Racism, sexism, classism. Upward mobility and societal standing have been a huge part of the evil side of the eugenics movement, which is why people have such a problem with it, particularly since the upper classes are the ones who institute these programs, because they have the power to. One of the biggest problems with classism, everywhere, is that is has everything to do with money, not genetics at all. You have to have money to make money. If you are born into terrible circumstances, your opportunities are greatly reduced. Tuition is unaffordable for a majority of people, regardless of their intelligence. These are not factors of breeding, but of the greed of the upper classes, and the fact that people seem to matter a lot less than money, and it has always been that way. It seems to be more systematic now in North America, things are getting worse in Canada too, now that our new Prime Minister has unfrozen tuition caps. My cousin is the only person in our family to have attended university. She is fantastically bright, as are many of my family members, including my brother, who makes less than I do, and spends his free time doing more challenging things than most people. My cousin's education has been paid for almost entirely from government grants and scholarships, because she's Native. It's an interesting twist, I think, on the racial perspective, considering native history since colonization. I don't agree that race should be the determining factor for whether or not a person can get a good education, but my cousin is one of the most deserving people of a chance like this that I know. And she is becoming an even more awesome person because of it. As I mentioned earlier, there are still states where some forms of testing are REQUIRED before marriage. Wikipedia, Eugenics, Syphilis, second section "United States": "There are some states that require a blood test prior to marriage.[152] While these tests are typically restricted to the detection of the sexually transmitted disease syphilis (which was the most common STD at the time these laws were enacted), some partners will voluntarily test for other diseases and genetic incompatibilities. Harris polls in 1986 and 1992 recorded majority public support for limited forms of germ-line intervention, especially to prevent "children inheriting usually fatal genetic disease".[153] Furthermore, Family cap is put in practice in many U.S. states." To bring up Autism again, there is definitely a genetic basis for the disorder. There is a spectrum in all humans, and one could almost say that the spectrum of Autism begins at "Nerdy". I realize that sounds really odd, but hear me out. I'm not claiming to be an expert, this is just something I have noticed, and there is some evidence to back it up. One of my best friends works in the field of IT, in a fairly high level of systems engineering, often working on special projects. I won't tell you the company or products, though I'd love to. Anyway, there has always been something different about him, in the way he relates to people and objects. A high degree of obliviousness when it comes to politeness or the level of comfort of those around him and what their needs may be, and with a pre-occupation with objects and intricate systems. As an example, his brother lived in the Yukon for a while, and when he got the news that his brother was coming home, his first words were, "Sam's coming home from the Yukon... which means he'll be bringing his xbox!" This was several years ago when xbox was new. He did not graduate high school. He didn't need to to get where he is, because his skills, the way his mind works, these things can not be taught. He spent several years after dropping out in his parents' basement teaching himself different types of programming, and learning the way the internet worked before most people even knew what it was. In some respects he is a genius on a level most people will never reach. And on others, such as social settings, or when he can sense that someone is in need of something but has no idea what, or even when it comes to his own emotional reactions, he *just doesn't get it*. The reason I bring this up is that there is a marked jump in the numbers of autistic children who are born to people in the fields of engineering and programming. This was first recognized at Microsoft, when higher than usual numbers of parents who met at Microsoft began having Autistic children. I'll see if I can find an article for you: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9...ergers_pr.html I wish I could find a better article. But it was noticed several years ago that when both parents are, for lack of better words, nerds like my room mate, the chances of producing an autistic child are heightened. So, while autism is recognized as being debilitating on one end of the spectrum, there are also traits that make people amazing at doing other things on the lower end of the spectrum. I'm not really sure why this is happening so much more now than before, except that people with these exceptional skills are now highly sought after in an age of high-tech everything, and people with these skill sets are brought together in large numbers as never before, so it is perhaps inevitable. There's something that happens to our brains, that puts us all on this spectrum in different ways. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, there have been absolutely no environmental factors proven to have an affect on the incidence of Autism, though many people, who are angry and desperate and need something to blame, have rallied against childhood vaccinations and various other things. So genetic research, and understanding why certain parents are more likely to produce Autistic children, is our best hope in that regard.