eugenocide

English

Alternative forms

• eugenicide

Etymology

Blend of eugenics +‎ genocide.

Noun

eugenocide (uncountable)

1. The elimination of weak or defective people in an attempt to improve the gene pool.
   • 1971, Intellectual Digest - Volume 2, page 286:

     Practiced on an international scale, eugenocide will do much to prevent lingering, tortuous death by starvation, occasioned so often by overbrowse in underdeveloped nations.

   • 1971, The Scriblerian - Volumes 4-5, page 99:

     It was the "first of the modest schemes for the ecological conservation and harvesting of newborns, which we have come to know as the science of eugenocide."

   • 1994, Richard Sobsey, Violence and Abuse in the Lives of People with Disabilities, →ISBN, page 115:

     Wolfensberger (1981) refers to the particular effort to eliminate people with disabilities as eugenocide.

Usage notes

• While the spelling eugenocide was used when the term was originally coined, the alternative form eugenicide is currently in more common usage.