20세기 초 미국의 과학과 법 : 혼인법, 이민법, 그리고 불임법을 중심으로

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigation, in America, interaction between science and law through a eugenical law in the early 20th century. For this object, I critically examined a series of eugenical law such as Marriages Law, Immigration Act and Sterilizations Law established in the US in early 20th century. I knew Science and Law in society have always been justified and reinforced each other by claiming the significance of implementing science for society, which was considered objective, neutral and certain. Eugenicists of the US insisted that biological unfitness should be artificially removed from the society for the national efficiency and preservation of national prototype. In the name of science, then, biological unfitness transformed into the rationale for the social and racial discrimination against the unfit, namely the underprivileged by law. It is doubtful whether it is possible to draw new norm and order of society with the information related to physiological characteristic of a human, and whether it is possible to interpret biologically the problems of human life such as job, insurance, marriage, immigration, education, and crime. We witness a flux of efforts to interpret ourselves in terms of biology. The appearance of a eugenical laws of the U.S. in the early of 20th centuries will offer a poignant caveat for those upsurge of biologizing tendency on human right in our society.