Civilization and Quasi-Eugenic Worries

From The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin
Darwin worries that civilized societies suspend natural selection by preserving the weak through medicine and charity, foreshadowing later eugenic arguments though he stops short of advocating restrictive policy.
Chapter 5

Famous passage: "We civilised men... do our utmost to check the process of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick..." yet affirms that sympathy itself is a noble part of our nature.

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Chapter 5

Reflects on Greek decline and the Irish/Scot reproductive rates, sources later cited by eugenicists.

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