CHROMOSOME 21: Summary
In his chapter "CHROMOSOME 21", Matt Ridley explains how eugenics itself isn't a problem, it's the people who make it one (para.35). Ridley begins by defining eugenics as individuals striving to pick a good mate, someone smart and healthy (para.5), and how it became a political creed instead of a politicized science. American eugenic beliefs stemmed from anti-immigration and the fear of mixing the Anglo-Saxon American race, resulting in the Immigration restriction act of 1924. Even the Supreme Court in 1927 allowed sterilization and started preventing people from breeding. Ridley also accounts the history of Britain and how they never passed laws allowing sterilization (not saying they didn't do it in private hospitals).
