Polish psychologists towards eugenic projects

The revival of disputes on establishing eugenics as an independent scholarly discipline triggered current discussions on euthanasia, cloning and in vitro fertilisation. At the edge of the 19th and 20th centuries, people marked with eugenic risk were considered unproductive in terms of the state undisturbed functioning. Usually, such assumption was enough to have the stigmatised person forcibly sterilised.After WW I, Polish elites encountered the modern idea that the newly born Polish state had a chance of fast development thanks to eugenics. Soon, the negative one that applied much cheaper methods replaced positive eugenics. It was enough to legitimate sterilisation, giving consent to contracting marriages and having abortions in order to successively eliminate the factors contributing to ‘the deterioration of hereditary traits’. In 1930–1935, large efforts were made to pass a Polish eugenic law, which eased off a little following Hitler's signing the Nuremberg Laws. Negative consequences of eugenic laws were more and more explicit, and discussions with regard to passing a similar legislation in Poland were carried on until WW II.How is it possible that, despite considerable pressure supported with examples of smooth passing the eugenic laws by other states’ parliaments, the Polish eugenic law was never passed?It is hard to justify any form of accepting negative eugenics taking place after 1936. Regardless of the motives underlying the tacit attitude of the Polish psychologists towards eugenic projects, from the time perspective their silence should be assessed negatively.