[yoo-jen-iks] 
) | the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, esp. by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics) or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics). |
The idea that one can improve the human race by careful selection of those who mate and produce offspring.
Note: Eugenics was a popular theory in the early twentieth century but is no longer taken seriously, primarily because of the horrors of the eugenic efforts of the Nazi regime in Germany.
"The investigation of human eugenics, that is, of the conditions under which men of a high type are produced." [Galton, "Human Faculty," 1883]
eugenics eu·gen·ics (y&oomacr;-jěn'ĭks)
n.
The study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding.