Eugenics is a “damned” science in the fortean sense if ever there was one. Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, coined the word to describe improving the human race by controlling reproduction. The eugenics movement started with the very best intentions, but it all went horribly wrong. These days no respectable scientist will go near it… but like a submerged monster, eugenics still surfaces occasionally.


In Galton’s day, scientists already had a pretty good under­standing of how heredity operated, and selective breeding had made a great difference to livestock. It had been discovered that many conditions were hereditary, and could be avoided by con­trolled breeding.