The idea that social problems were caused by people who were genetically unfit, that such people were readily identified, and that they should not be permitted to reproduce was an important part of discussions about mental deficiency in the period from 1900-1940. Mention is made of the papers which follow. (IS)

Eugenists in Edwardian Great Britain believed that society was in imminent danger because degenerate individuals were outbreeding normal people. Four strategies to prevent the unfit from reproducing--regulation, birth control, sterilization, and segregation--are discussed as well as the political and social climate in which eugenics developed. (IS)