Eugenics

Hey geniuses, I'm just wondering... Has there ever been a time in history where eugenics has been practised as a societal norm for a significant length of time?

Or what would be the closest equivalent?

nzlockie: Depends on how loosely you define eugenics. Abortion can be loosely seen as a eugenic decision if on the basis of, say, a genetic illness in the child. It's just not the overt "better breeding programmes" that used to be normal in the 1800s.

admin: It's the "better breeding" type programmes I was thinking of.

Been watching some daytime TV today and started thinking about the number of times I've heard people (jokingly) suggesting we shouldn't let some people breed.
That led me to wonder whether any societies in history had actually instigated policies like that.

nzlockie: We DON'T let some people breed. Just that it's not that many people.

It's never such a joke though with forced chemical castration, which actually routinely happens in our world... literally, there's no shortage of countries where "no longer being allowed to breed" is a punishment. In fairness though, nature doesn't let some people breed as well, so there's that.

nzlockie: I think the Spartans did that for a while. I wouldn't want it to return. I'd rather give inferior people their own island rather than kill them.