When medicine sought a master race
The Nazi sterilization and euthanasia programs grew out of a medical and scientific culture that put racist ideology before patients' welfare.
When medicine sought a master race
The eugenics movement predated Nazi Germany, with Indiana becoming the first jurisdiction in the world to enact a eugenic sterilization law in 1907. The 1911 International Hygiene Exhibition at the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden included a display on human heredity and ideas to improve it. This promotional poster for the exhibit features the Enlightenment's all-seeing eye of God, adapted from the ancient Egyptian "Eye of Ra," symbolizing fitness or health.
Courtesy of Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin
Published Dec. 6, 2010 - Copyright American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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