Radio Review: Bad Blood – The story of eugenics, you've got good genes

Geneticist Dr Adam Rutherford presents a six-part BBC audio series called 'Bad Blood'. The first episode may be set in Victorian Britain, but it starts off with a modern Donald Trump speech about 'good genes'. His rally speech contains three key eugenics ideas: firstly, that genes determine life outcomes (not wealth or privilege); secondly, the racehorse theory about breeding better humans; finally, and most repulsively, the superiority of Nordic or Aryan ancestry (or as Trump calls it, 'Minnesotan').

Next, we jump back in time to where these ideas first came together. On a street corner in Victorian Aberdeen, polymath Francis Galton is creepily rating the attractiveness of passing women (Attractive, Indifferent or Repellent) to create a 'Beauty Map' of the British Isles. Galton is 'quirky' and data-obsessed, says podcast contributor Professor Joe Cain, professor of history and philosophy of biology at University College London.

Galton took inspiration from his famous cousin Charles Darwin, becoming obsessed with selective evolution. He wrote a book called 'Hereditary Genius' and invented the phrase Nature vs Nurture. He also coined the term eugenics – originating from the Greek words for 'well born', but a modern translation could be 'good genes'. Of course, Galton's theories completely ignore privilege and societal structures, but managed to supercharge the eugenics agenda by making it seem like a science.

Dr Rutherford explained how the Victorian Britain class structure was primed to accept this theory as a solution to the central problem of the age – poverty. The Eugenics Education Society was founded in 1907, and its members preached eugenics with a 'religious zeal'. Galton called eugenics 'a jihad, a holy war, against customs and prejudices that impair the physical and moral qualities of our race'. The ideas spread from the salons of the intelligentsia to pop culture via newspapers and novels.

Galton had realised that to alter the nation's breeding patterns, you needed to infiltrate romance and marriage. Angelique Richardson, podcast contributor and professor of English at the University of Exeter, explained how this intersected with nascent feminists and 'new women', who she described as 'the bicycling independent woman'. There were over 100 novels by or about 'new women'. This was part of a wave now called 'Eugenic Feminism', which advocated for women to be able to have more reproductive choice. You could even buy eugenics Valentine cards!

I am horrified, but not surprised, to learn that the Imperial Institute (now Imperial College, where I work) was, in 1912, the stage for the first international eugenics conference. In attendance were delegates from Europe and America, inventors, religious leaders, and prime ministers both former (Balfour) and future (Churchill). Charles Darwin's son Leonard opened the event. Talks included subjects such as the 'elimination of defectives', 'the inferiority of the lower classes' and 'race hygiene'. By 1912, Churchill was already an advocate of forced sterilisation. He wrote the Mental Deficiency Act, which became law the following year – legalising involuntary institutionalisation. However, despite Churchill's efforts, Britain never legally enshrined forced sterilisation. Unfortunately, plenty of other countries did.

But it is not all disheartening listening – it is inspiring to hear about individuals pushing back against the prevailing theories of the time. Several cultural figures were anti-eugenics – people such as writer GK Chesterton (who called it 'abhorrent') and pottery heir Josiah Wedgwood (who called it 'unproven science').

The podcast team dealt expertly with the disturbing subject matter and tried to keep a neutral, factual tone (condemnatory but not emotional). Ultimately, it gave interesting and important insights into the dark history of eugenics. I particularly enjoyed the exposé of Churchill, to whom the airbrush of history has been too flattering. If you want to delve deeper into how eugenics has influenced science today, I'd also recommend the book Superior by Angela Saini.

Professor Cain explained that even if it's no longer labelled eugenics: 'eugenic thinking is in every country, in every culture, at every time.' It feels timely that this podcast is raising awareness of these insidious ideas so that we don't become complacent in the fight against them.

The rest of the series will examine eugenics up to the genome-edited babies of the present era (see BioNews 977). I'll certainly be listening to more of it!