[The Typing Baker] "We Live in a 'Useong Society'"

New Book 'Usaenghak Within Us'
"Acknowledging Traces of Eugenics is Essential for a Post-Eugenics Society"

On the 8th, the Japanese National Diet passed a compensation bill for victims of 'forced sterilization.' Following the Nazi 'Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring,' Japan enacted the 'Eugenic Protection Law' in 1948, forcibly sterilizing disabled individuals to prevent them from having children, producing about 16,000 victims over approximately 50 years. The Japanese National Diet also adopted a resolution stating, "We seriously acknowledge responsibility for promoting wrongful policies based on eugenic ideology and sincerely offer our deepest apologies."

Eugenics originated from the 'theory of artificial selection' by British geneticist Francis Galton (1822?1911). Unlike Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, which proposed 'natural selection,' Galton believed that races could progress through artificial selection, similar to breeding livestock. Accordingly, a strategy was concretized to leave only those who met certain criteria to achieve communal development. Eugenics, in a broad sense, includes not only the control of heredity and reproduction but also distinctions and justifications based on social value systems and prejudices.

The authors of the book Eugenics Within Us trace the history of Korean eugenics from the Japanese colonial period to recent times from various research perspectives, including history of science, medical history, medical sociology, disability history, and gender studies. About 100 years ago, Japanese intellectuals introduced eugenics to Korea as a means of national development. Eugenics in colonial Joseon centered on the keywords 'development' and 'progress.' After liberation, some scientists and medical professionals argued that 'eugenic laws should be actively introduced to leap forward as an advanced country.' The 'Maternal and Child Health Act' enacted in 1973 and eugenics education continuing into the 1990s are traces of this.

Of course, one cannot entirely deny or criticize the desire of individuals to have physically and mentally superior offspring. In fact, in the context of the time, eugenic thinking was often positively received. For example, feminists in Joseon believed that having one or two excellent children would increase women's time for self-development and social participation and could liberate women from feudal order.

However, seeking ways to have healthy children through voluntary choice and being controlled in pregnancy and childbirth by state coercion and violence are issues of a different dimension. Leaving only citizens with superior and improved bodies or excellent social adaptability is impossible without state violence. Such tragedies occurred domestically as well, where Hansen's disease patients and disabled people were subjected to forced sterilization procedures or isolated in facilities. After the Korean War, children born between U.S. military personnel and Korean women were considered not fitting the government's 'national integration' goals and were often classified as primary candidates for overseas adoption.

A 2019 survey jointly conducted by Seoul Shinmun, the Disability Rights Forum, and Gonggongui Chang found that among 1,001 adult respondents, two-thirds agreed with sterilization of disabled people upon recommendation by parents or others around them. Only 37.1% expressed the opinion that 'at least minimal self-determination rights should be respected.' Dr. Soh Hyun-sook, who participated in the writing, pointed out, "It seems to consider the difficulties of parenting reality, but it confirms a culture that takes the infringement of reproductive rights of disabled people for granted."

The book repeatedly emphasizes, "Simply portraying eugenics as bad and demonizing it does not help sufficiently understand how eugenics actually produces discrimination. (However,) the most important first step toward a post-eugenic society is to acknowledge that the place we live in is a eugenic society and to diagnose why we live in a eugenic society."

Eugenics Within Us | Edited by Kim Jae-hyung et al. | Dolbegae | 320 pages | 19,000 KRW