feb 1, 1910 - Churchill interested in the
possibility of sterilizing the
“unfit.”
Description:
As Secretary of State for the Home Department (February 1910-October 1911) Churchill was much interested in the possibility of sterilising the “unfit.” Like most educated people of the time, he was much impressed by the theory of eugenics. Eugenics was based on the belief that heredity was far more important than environment in determining the physical and mental qualities of the population, and the eugenics movement enjoyed a considerable vogue between the turn of the century and the First World War.
According to the eugenists, Britain was threatened by the “degeneration of the race.” The “unfit,” who were concentrated among the poor, were reproducing themselves more rapidly than the “fit,” who were to be found mainly among the middle classes. The remedy, they argued, was for Governments to practise positive eugenics through tax incentives to the middle classes to have more children, and negative eugenics through measures to prevent the procreation of the unfit.
In 1904 the Balfour Government appointed a Royal Commission to inquire into the “feeble-minded.” When the commission reported in 1908 it recommended that certain categories of the mentally inadequate should be compulsorily detained in institutions. As the Home Office was the department responsible for mental institutions, the proposal went to Herbert Gladstone, who deferred a decision, leaving the matter to be taken up by Churchill.
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