The Kallikak Family Eugenics Fraud and the Harm That It Has Caused.

Every society has some citizens who do not live up to what that society considers appropriate behavior. A once-common label for some of these persons was "feeble-minded." Inspired by Darwinism, Harvard-trained biologist Charles Davenport, and a one-time Ohio State University psychology professor, Henry Goddard, located a family whom they believed supported their eugenic belief that feeble-mindedness was, at the least, partly inherited. In a futile effort to protect their identities, the pseudonym "Kallikak" was given to the family chosen for the case study. Great consequences resulted from Davenport and Goddard's research including fueling support for American and German eugenic policy. In Germany, it eventually resulted in the Holocaust. A careful investigation has determined that the Kallikak study was fraudulent, and in the end, badly misled. The persons responsible for the fraud likely included Goddard and the fieldwork project director Elizabeth Kite. The disastrous result was that an entire family and family history, as well as some of the people connected with the research, experienced slander that left an indelible mark on their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]