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6 - Eugenics, Public Health, and Modern Sexuality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2024

By
Mirela David
Edited by
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks  and
Mathew Kuefler
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Mathew Kuefler
Affiliation:
San Diego State University
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Summary

Eugenics suffused the medical field through its convergence with hygiene and ideologically underpinned governmental policies of national health, maternal health, and venereal disease control in many countries globally, including in Romania and China. This resulted in the creation of Institutes of Social Hygiene in different countries, including in Romania. The writings of Dr Iuliu Moldovan, founder of The Institute of Hygiene and Social Hygiene in Cluj, Romania, offer insights into eugenics and its connection to veneral disease control in Romania. One case study of applying eugenics to public health is the work against venereal disease at the Model Sanitary Station in Gilau between 1924-33 in Transylvania, Romania. This chapter also uncovers transnational medical cooperation to create public health in China by following the international training of Dr Yang Chongrui, a renowned specialist in maternal health. The details of Yang”s Euro-American study tour attest to how she encountered important elements for eugenic public health: hygiene, venereal disease control, lectures on “the mentally defective”, puericulture, facilities for syphilitic children, prisons, and hospitals for indigent women. Yang”s interaction with Andrija Štampar, who arranged her global tours sponsored by League of Nations Health Organization, was also formative in shaping her eugenic beliefs.

Keywords

eugenicspublic healthvenereal diseasesexually transmitted diseasesocial hygieneIuliu MoldovanRomaniaYang ChongruiChina
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge World History of Sexualities , pp. 114 - 135
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Further Reading

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