The concept of moving selective breeding from the animal world to the human world began to take root in the 1830's.  Could this natural extension of Genetics and Darwinism be resurfacing?

Roots
        In 1883, Francis Galton, cousin of Charles Darwin, coined the word "Eugenics", which means "good in birth".  In his book Natural Inheritance (1889), he theorized that society would be better without the presence of inferior people.  In fact, he continued this line of reasoning to say that societies topple because the genetically superior aristocracy have fewer children than the inferior peasants.  To keep this from happening, he proposed two methods of control -- Positive eugenics would create incentives for the very intelligent or successful to reproduce.  Negative eugenics would keep the unfit from reproducing.

Applications
       Galton's ideas grew in popularity both in America and abroad.  In 1896, Conneticut had put in place laws that forbade sex with epileptics or the mentally handicapped.  In 1907, a state law was passed that required sterilization of institutionalized, mentally retarded males, as well as criminal males.  This law would eventually lead to other states' passage of similar laws; before they were repealed in 1956, 58,000 American citizens were sterilized.  The Immigration Act of 1924 limited the immigration of "idiots, imbeciles, feebleminded, epileptics, insane persons" to the United States.
      The philosophy of eugenics had taken root in Nazi Germany, as well.  In 1934, the Eugenic Sterilization Law was passed in Nazi Germany, ordering the sterilization of individuals with genetically inherited diseases; the Genetic Health Courts would decide who would and who would not be sterilized.  In 1939, the situation turned very ugly.  The Nazi laws were extended to allow the killing of genetically undesirable people; by the time World War II was over, 75,000 "unfit" persons had been killed, including 5,000 children.  As the world discovered the atrocities tha had been committed, many began to rethink their positions regarding these laws.  In 1956, all United States eugenic sterilization laws were repealed, and nine years later, many of the immigration restrictions were lifted.

Modern Eugenics?
       Thanks to the Human Genome Project and other genetic research, prenatal testing allows for the detection of many illnesses, including cystic fibrosis and Down's syndrome.  Pregnant women can now know ahead of time if their fetus will contract an incurable disease or condition.  Often, a diagnosis leads to the termination of the fetus.  This can be construed to be a combination of euthanasia and eugenics, an attempt to keep "bad genes" out of the gene pool, or as an act of mercy, terminating a fetus whose quality of life is in doubt.  But which is it?  And whose decision is this really to make?  Who gets to decide what diseases/conditions are too bad to have to live with and what diseases/conditions are not so bad?