Eugenics Between the 20th and 21st Centuries: A Necessary DiscussionABSTRACT
Eugenics was born at the end of the 19th century, in England, with Francis Galton (1822-1911) as its main protagonist; in Brazil, it arrived at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, but gained capillarity from the role of Renato Kehl (1889-1974). Eugenicists believed in its effectuation to eliminate groups that presented abnormal behavior, through birth control policies, physical elimination and other methods. The purpose of this article is to discuss eugenic practices in Brazil, from the years 1945 onwards, from the civil military coup of 1964; still, it is intended to demonstrate the permanence of eugenics from the trade of DNA test kits and other practices that translate into positive eugenics. Finally, we seek to expose how eugenics was made explicit in Brazil, in the context of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Keywords: Eugenics; Sterilization; Extermination; History of Eugenics; Ideology of Racism