Why did public support for eugenics decline after World War II?

Public support for eugenics declined sharply following World War II due to the horrific association between eugenic ideology and the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany.12

While eugenics had gained traction among scientific and political leaders in the early 20th century, the Nazi regime’s use of eugenic rhetoric to justify the systematic extermination of Jewish and other non-Aryan populations fundamentally discredited the movement. This association transformed eugenics from a field once hailed as a legitimate science into a stigmatized "failed pseudoscience".13

In the postwar era, the ethical imperative to reject such discriminatory practices led to a widespread distancing from the term itself. Organizations and publications began removing "eugenics" from their names—for instance, the Annals of Eugenics was renamed the Annals of Human Genetics in 1954. Furthermore, revelations regarding involuntary sterilization programs, such as those investigated during 1973 U.S. Senate hearings, reinforced the moral rejection of state-sponsored eugenics. Today, while concerns persist regarding the ethical implications of modern medical genetics, these applications are subject to much closer scrutiny than the eugenics programs of the early 20th century.14