The scientific origins and the development of eugenic and racial theoriesformulated by physicians, jurists and intellectuals since the early twentieth century have only recently attracted scholarly attention. However, the dissemination of eugenic measures regarding the social policy that Greek interwar governments implemented to protect the health of mothers and children still remains an underresearched topic. Our contribution presents the main points of the discussion about the relation of eugenics and puericulture and traces its development among paediatricians in the 1920s and 1930s. It further looks into the stakes, the ambivalent attitude and the eugenic proposals of both liberal and authoritarian governments concerning the protection of childhood and motherhood as well as into their respective demographic policies during the interwar period.

The Greek biopolitics of reproduction during the postwar period was determined by the demographic figures. Instead of a rise in births, Greece experienced a constant downward trajectory of the birth rate throughout the second half of the twentieth century. The country also witnessed population instability due to the massive immigration in the 1960s and the wave of repatriation in the next decade. The article explores the state's bio-politics in order to achieve demographic equilibrium by adopting a pronatalist perspective. The construction of biopolitics was influenced by the consecutive wars of the first half of the century resulting in the denial of any means suspected of reducing the birth rate, such as contraception and abortion. In parallel, the article investigates the attempts of a group of eugenicists to impose to the state authorities their own views on reproduction control. The key debates were birth control and abortion because these issues of reproduction were entangled with major social fermentations caused by urbanization, modernization, eugenics, and feminism. The Constitution of 1974 was instrumental in changing the biopolitics of reproduction by introducing equal rights to men and women. It provoked a series of legal transformations with regard to marriage, family, and reproduction.

Eugenics before 1945 An appropriate understanding of eugenics before 1945 implies that this break is questioned and put into perspective. The article conceives eugenics as a multifarious project of modernity that derived from the biopolitical aspiration to improve public health and enhance human capabilities. Consequently, it was supported across the political spectrum. In the course of the Twentieth Century, an international eugenics movement took shape and found widespread and transnational resonance in the public opinion. However, the conflation of the Aryan myth, racial purity and medical coercive measures in Nazi-Germany discredited the concept of eugenics after 1945. Nonetheless, such measures, often combined with elements of soft coercion, were applied in many countries, particularly in the U.S., the Scandinavian countries and Switzerland up to the 1970s. Meanwhile, the feasibility of Reproductive Medicine gave rise to a «liberal eugenics» which is entrenched in the promises of health and happiness descending from the Nineteenth Century. Eugenik vor 1945 Ein angemessenes Verständnis der Eugenik vor 1945 setzt voraus, dass nicht von einem ausgegangen wird. Vielmehr wird die Eugenik als facettenreiches Projekt der Moderne begriffen, das biopolitischen Bestrebungen entstammt, mithilfe derer die «Volksgesundheit» verbessert und menschliche Fähigkeiten gefördert werden sollten. Demzufolge erhielt es die Unterstützung des gesamten politischen Spektrums. Im Laufe des 20. Jahrhunderts bildete sich eine internationale Eugenik-Bewegung, die in der transnationalen Öffentlichkeit großen Anklang fand. Nach der Vermischung von Eugenik mit dem Ariermythos, der Rassenreinheit und medizinischen Zwangsmaßnahmen im Nationalsozialismus waren Eugenik-Konzepte nach 1945 diskreditiert. Gleichwohl wurden eugenische Maßnahmen bis in die 1970er Jahre in zahlreichen Ländern praktiziert und oft mit subtilen Zwangsmaßnahmen kombiniert: insbesondere in den USA, den skandinavischen Ländern und der Schweiz. Unterdessen ebneten die Möglichkeiten der Reproduktionsmedizin den Weg für eine «liberale Eugenik», die untrennbar mit den aus dem 19. Jahrhundert stammenden Gesundheits- und Glücksverheißungen verbunden sind. Eugénisme avant 1945 Une bonne compréhension de l’eugénisme avant 1945 exige une interrogation et une mise en perspective de cette non-rupture. L’article conçoit l’eugénisme comme un projet de modernité multiforme provenant d’aspirations biopolitiques visant à améliorer la santé publique et à renforcer les capacités humaines. Par conséquent, il reçut le soutien de l’ensemble de la classe politique. Au cours du XXème siècle apparut un mouvement eugénique international qui fut fort bien accueilli par l’opinion publique transnationale. La confusion entre eugénisme, mythe aryen, pureté raciale et mesures médicales coercitives qu’eut lieu dans l’Allemagne national-socialiste conduisit néanmoins au discrédit du concept de l’eugénisme après 1945. Toutefois, de telles mesures furent appliquées dans de nombreux pays jusqu’aux années 1970 et furent souvent combinées à des dispositifs de coercition subtile: en particulier aux Etats-Unis, dans les pays scandinaves et en Suisse. En attendant, les possibilités de la médecine de la reproduction défrichèrent le terrain pour un «eugénisme libéral» s’inscrivant dans le sillage des promesses de santé et de bonheur héritées du XIXème siècle.

Introduction to "Present-days eugenics", monographic issue of "Contemporanea. Rivista dell'800 e del 900"