Hopelessly Entangled in Nordic Pre-Suppositions: Catholic Participation in the American Eugenics Society in the 1920s
Date
2004
Authors
Leon, Sharon
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
Abstract
This article examines the involvement of U.S. Catholics in the American Eugenics Society during the 1920′s. While Catholics were often opponents of eugenics, John A. Ryan and John Montgomery Cooper, both Catholic priests and intellectuals, were prominent in the debate within the Committee on Cooperation with Clergymen of the American Eugenics Society. Ryan and Cooper repeatedly examined the scientific bases for eugenicists’ claims and sought to shift the movement away from its racist and classist elements. Soon after Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Casti Connubii formalized Catholic opposition to eugenics and other efforts to control reproduction, such as birth control, Ryan and Cooper finally broke with the AES.
Description
Originally published by Oxford University Press: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/jrg041
Keywords
Catholic, Eugenics, US History, 1920s
Citation
Sharon M. Leon, “’Hopelessly Entangled in Nordic Pre-Suppositions’: Catholic Participation in the American Eugenics Society in the 1920s,” Journal of the History of Medicine & Allied Sciences 59, no. 1 (2004): 3-49. DOI: 10.1093/jhmas/jrg041