Skip to main content
  • 154 Accesses

Abstract

The culmination of the dissemination of eugenics in Greece was the organisation of numerous public conferences by the Hellenic Eugenics Society. Chapter five discusses the most representative ones where renowned physicians, academics, professionals and politicians found fertile ground to express their views. As the chapter shows, the Greek eugenicists were concerned with important social issues of the time, such as overpopulation and feminism but at the same time with more intimate issues of the individual, such as family planning and the control of hereditary diseases. In effect, the essence of post-war Greek eugenics regarding reproduction, family and demography is demonstrated in this chapter. The reader comes in contact with the Greek eugenicists in their own words.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Anon. 1958. A Pill Against Malthus’ Prophecy. Ikones 147: 30–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Antonopoulos, Anastasios. 1953. Sex Education of the Youth. Patras.

    Google Scholar 

  • Avdela, E., and A. Psara. 1985. Feminism in Interwar Greece: An Anthology. Athens: Gnosi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Banu, G. 1939. L’ hygiène de la race. Paris: Masson et Cie.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barmpouti, Alexandra. 2015a. Population, Urbanisation and Eugenics in Athens, 1950s–1970s. Revista de Anthropologie Urbana 5: 73–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barmpouti, Alexandra. 2015b. Eugenics and Induced Abortions in Post-War Greece. Acta Historiae Medicinae, Stomatologiae, Pharmacie, Veterinae 34 (1): 38–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barmpouti, Alexandra. 2017. Genetic Counseling for Mediterranean Anemia in Post-War Greece (1950–1980). In History of Human Genetics: Important Discoveries and Global Perspectives, ed. Heike Petermann, Peter Harper, and Susanne Doetz, 462–483. Heidelberg: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bashford, Alison. 2014. Global Population. History, Geopolitics and Life on Earth. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bateson, Gregory. 1972. Double Bind: Steps to Ecology of the Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blacker, J.G.C. 1954. Unchecked Populations: Some Comparisons of Rapid Growth. The Eugenics Review 47 (4): 235–244.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burnova, E., and M. Garden. 2014. Naître à Athènes dans la première moitié du xxe siècle. Démographie et institutions. Annales de Démographie Historique 1 (127): 209–234.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cao, A., and R. Galanello. 2010. Beta-Thalassemia. Genetics in Medicine 12 (2): 61–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Casey, T.J. 1960. Catholics and Family Planning. The American Catholic Sociological Review 21 (2): 125–135.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connelly, Matthew. 2008. Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dalakoura, K., and S. Ziogou-Karastergiou. 2015. Women’s Education. Women in Education: Social, Ideological, Educational Transformations and the Female Intervention (18th–20th Centuries). Athens: Hellenic Academic Libraries.

    Google Scholar 

  • David, H.P. 1992. Abortion in Europe, 1920–91: A Public Health Perspective. Studies in Family Planning 23 (1): 1–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drakoulidis, Nikolaos. 1963. Consequences de la surpopulation sur la sante mentale et morale. Acta Psychotherapeutica 11: 464–472.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • E. M. 1958. Blood Examination Before Marriage Is Necessary. Ethnos, September 15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fanaras, V.G. 2002. The Christian Orthodox and Other Churches and Religions View on Reproductive Issues. In Proceedings of the Conference ‘Marriage and Reproduction’. Athens. http://www.ecclesia.gr/greek/holysynod/commitees/family/parousiasi_syzigia.html. Accessed 22 July 2017.

  • Finkle, Jason L., and Barbara B. Crane. 1975. The Politics of Bucharest: Population, Development, and the New International Economic Order. Population and Development Review 1 (1): 87–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frevert, Ute. 1989. Women in German History: From Bourgeois Emancipation to Sexual Liberation. Oxford and Washington: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galton, Francis. 1889. Natural Inheritance. London: Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Goodhart, C.B. 1955. Natural Regulation of Numbers in Human Populations. The Eugenics Review 47 (3): 173–178.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellenic Eugenics Society. 1965. Public Discussions. Athens: Parisianos.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellenic Eugenics Society. 1974. Problems of the Elderly. Iatriki 11: 431–451.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellenic Eugenics Society. 1975. The Reproduction Problems of the Greek Population. Elliniki Iatriki 44 (3): 187–216.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellenic Eugenics Society. 1976a. Round Table Discussion: Antenatal Diagnosis. Iatriki 30 (2): 123–187.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellenic Eugenics Society. 1976b. The Family Today and Tomorrow. Elliniki Iatriki 45: 203–229.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellenic Eugenics Society. 1977. Public Discussions. Athens: Parisianos.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellenic Eugenics Society. 1978a. Legal Problems from the Point of View of Medical Sciences. Athens: n.p.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellenic Eugenics Society. 1978b. Premarital Medical Examination. Materia Medica Greca 6 (4): 299–315.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellenic Eugenics Society. 1978c. Public Discussions. Athens: Parisianos.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellenic Eugenics Society. 1979. Parental Authority or Care. Nomiko Vima 28 (2–3): 395–409.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellenic Society of Eugenics and Human Genetics. 1981. Sex Education: Interdisciplinary Symposium: 31 March–1 April 1979, Athens. Athens: Hellenic Society of Eugenics and Human Genetics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellenic Society for Family Planning, Contraception and Reproductive Health. http://www.oikogeneiakos.gr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=79&Itemid=311&lang=el. Accessed 2 Feb 2014.

  • Henig, Ruth, and Simon Henig. 2001. Women and Political Power: Europe Since 1945. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Inglehart, Ronald, and Pippa Norris. 2003. Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ioannidi-Kapolou, Elizabeth. 2004. Use of Contraception and Abortion in Greece: A Review. Reproductive Health Matters 12 (24): 174–183.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kattamis, C.N., et al. 1970. Growth of Children with Thalassaemia: Effect of Different Transfusion Regimens. Archives of Disease in Childhood 45: 502–505.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koronaios, G. 1959a. The Agonising Problems Produced By Overpopulation: Is There Enough Space for the Greeks in Greece? A Sensational Discussion Among Seven Top Academics. Acropolis, April 26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koronaios, G. 1959b. Does Overpopulation Threaten Greece? If the Civilised People Apply Birth Control, the Coloured will Cover the Earth. Acropolis, April 29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koronaios, G. 1959c. Does Overpopulation Threatens Us? Birth Control Is Not the Number One Problem of Our Country, But Provision of Labour to Everybody. Acropolis, May 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kotzamanis, Byron. 2000. The Demographic Developments During the Interwar Period in the Countries of Eastern Europe and Greece. Athens: National Center for Social Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kotzamanis, Byron, and Eleftheria Androulaki. 2009. Elements of Demography. Volos: University of Thessaly.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lampadarios, E., and V. Valaoras. 1939. La population grecque vieillit-elle? Archives Balkaniques de Médicine, Chirurgie et leurs Spécialités 1: 15–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leon, Sharon M. 2013. An Image of God: The Catholic Struggle with Eugenics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lidz, Ruth W., and Theodore Lidz. 1949. The Family Environment of Schizophrenic Patients. American Journal of Psychiatry 106: 332–345.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Löscher, Monika. 2007. Eugenics and Catholicism in Interwar Austria. In Blood and Homeland, Eugenics and Racial Nationalism in Central and Southeast Europe, 1900–1940, ed. M. Turda and P. Weindling, 299–316. Budapest: Central European University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loukopoulos, D. 2011. Haemoglobinopathies in Greece: Prevention Program Over the Past 35 Years. The Indian Journal of Medical Research 134 (4): 572–576.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loukopoulos, D., A. Kaltsoya-Tassiopoulou, and P. Fessas. 1983. Prevention of Thalassemia. Schweizerische Medizinische Wochenschrift 113 (40): 1419–1427.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacKnight, Gerald. 1958. The Great Problem of Overpopulation: An Interview with Bernard Russell. Kathimerini, September 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malamos, B., Ph. Phessas, and G. Stamatoyannopoulos. 1962. Types of Thalassaemia-Trait Carriers as Revealed By a Study of Their Incidence in Greece. British Journal of Haematology 8 (5): 5–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mauldin, W.P., et al. 1974. A Report on Bucharest. The World Population Conference and the Population Tribune, August 1974. Studies in Family Planning 5 (12): 357–395.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCabe, Lina L., and Edward R.B. McCabe. 2011. Down Syndrome: Coercion and Eugenics. Genetics in Medicine 13 (8): 708–710.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mead, Margaret. 1970. Culture and Commitment: A Study of the Generation Gap. New York: Doubleday.

    Google Scholar 

  • Modell, B., R.H.T. Ward, and D.V.I. Fairweather. 1980. Effect of Introducing Antenatal Diagnosis on Reproductive Behaviour of Families at Risk for Thalassaemia Major. British Medical Journal 280: 1347–1350.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nikolaos Louros Papers and Archive. N. Louros Foundation, Division of History of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete.

    Google Scholar 

  • Official Government Gazette. 1968. Law 300: About the Premarital Medical Examination Certificate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Official Government Gazette. 1980. Law 1036: About Family Planning and Other Regulations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Official Government Gazette. 1982. Law 1250: About the Establishment of Civil Marriage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Official Government Gazette. 1983. Law 1329: Application of the Constitutional Principle for Sex Equality to the Civil Code, Its Introductory Law, the Commercial Law, the Code of Civil Procedure, and Partial Modernisation of the Civil Code’s Ordinances About Family Law.

    Google Scholar 

  • Official Government Gazette. 1986. Law 1609: Artificial Termination of Pregnancy and Female Health Protection.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orwell, George. 1949. Nineteen Eighty-Four. London: Secker and Warburg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearson, Karl. 1930. The Life, Letters and Labours of Francis Galton. London: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Papavassiliou, I.TH. 1954. Intelligence and Family Size. Population Studies 7 (3): 222–226.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rendall, Jane. 1985. The Origins of Modern Feminism: Women in Britain, France and the United States, 1780–1860. Basingstoke: Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, Christine. 2004. Preaching Eugenics: Religious Leaders and the American Eugenics Movement. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Singer, M.T., and L.C. Wynne. 1966. Principles for Scoring Communication Defects and Deviances in Parents of Schizophrenics: Rorschach and TAT Scoring Manuals. Psychiatry 29 (3): 260–288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Society of Medical Studies. 1963. Conference of the Hellenic Eugenics Society. Iatriki 3 (3): 169–222. Reprint in Nikolaos Louros Papers and Archive.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spencer, Hamish G., and Diane B. Paul. 1998. The Failure of a Scientific Critique: David Heron, Karl Pearson and Mendelian Eugenics. The British Journal for the History of Science 31 (4): 441–452.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stavropoulos, Alexandre M. 1970. Bilan analytique et clinique du centre experimental de consultations premaritales et conjugales de la Société Hellenique d’ Eugenisme a Athènes. Louvain: Université Catholique de Louvain.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stavropoulos, Alexander M. 1977. The Problem of Reproduction and the Encyclical of the Church of Greece (1937). Athens.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stavropoulos, Alexander M. 1981. The Demographical Problem, Gamily Planning and Abortion: A Theological Approach. Athens.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stokes, Shannon C. 1972. Religious Differentials in Reproductive Behaviour: A Replication and Extension. Sociological Analysis 33 (1): 26–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan, Harry Stack. 1968. The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry. New York, London: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Greek Constitution. 1975. Official Government Gazette, June 9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Toth, Adel, Tibor Nyari, and Janos Szabo. 2008. Changing Views on the Goal of Reproductive Genetic Counselling in Hungary. European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Reproductive Biology 137: 3–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trubeta, Sevasti. 2013. Physical Anthropology Race and Eugenics in Greece (1880–1970s). Leiden: Brill.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Turda, Marius. 2009. To End the Degeneration of a Nation: Debates on Eugenic Sterilisation in Inter-War Romania. Medical History 53 (1): 77–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • United Nations. 1974. Report of the United Nations World Population Conference 1974. http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/index.shtml. Accessed 14 May 2014.

  • United Nations. 2002. Abortion Policies: A Global Review. New York: United Nation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valaoras, Vasilios. 1943. Elements of Biometry and Statistics. A Demographic Research of the Greek Population. Athens: Vafiadakis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valaoras, Vasilios. 1950. Refined Rates for Infant and Child Mortality. Population Studies 4 (3): 253–266.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Valaoras, Vasilios. 1976. Studies, Titles, Activity and Scientific Works: Additional Text, February 1974–December 1976. Athens: n.p.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valaoras, V.G., A. Polychronopoulou, and D. Trichopoulos. 1965. Control of Family Size in Greece: The Results of a Field Survey. Population Studies 18 (3): 265–278.

    Google Scholar 

  • Varika, E. 1987. The Revolution of the Ladies: The Birth of Feminist Consciousness in Greece 1833–1907. Athens: Institute of Research and Education of the Commercial Bank of Greece.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weatherall, D.J. 2010. Thalassaemia: A Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Weatherall, D.J., and J.B. Clegg. 2000. The Thalassemias Syndromes. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wingfield, Nancy M., and Maria Bucur. 2006. Gender and War in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ziegler, Mary. 2008. Reinventing Eugenics: Reproductive Choice and Law Reform After the World War II. Cardozo Journal of Law and Gender 14: 319–347.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Barmpouti, A. (2019). Eugenic Concerns. In: Post-War Eugenics, Reproductive Choices and Population Policies in Greece, 1950s–1980s. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03568-6_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03568-6_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-03567-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-03568-6

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics