Social darwinism is a term used for different movements. Charles Darwin was one of the main proponents of evolution. Evolution is a concept from biology that tries to explain how different life-forms change over time. It basically says that because most children are not exactly like their parents, there is change. Some of the children will have different features (or traits). These features will mean that some children are better adapted to the place where they live. They will therefore be better able to have offspring. Some of the offspring might also have the trait of their parents.
Social darwinism theories try to use these ideas from biology for human society. They talk about a "Struggle for survival" of human societies. During the era of Nazi ideologies, the idea of Survival of the fittest combined with racism. They claimed the Aryan race was better than all the other races and therefore needed more space to live. This space was to be provided in the east (where mostly Slavs lived).
Today, this is seen as badly named. Most of the ideas for the theories are from Lamarckism and not from the theory of evolution, proposed by Charles Darwin.
Although Darwin's idea was revered in most of the western societies, many Russian intellectuals did not accept his ideas. They feared that accepting Darwin's ideas would harm their morality. One of Darwin's biggest critic was Leo Tolstoy, who felt strongly against what he thought was Darwin's idea. In a letter from his death bed, he warned his children not to take Darwin's struggle for existence as a moral guide. Darwin never suggested his ideas were a basis for human life, just a description of what had happened in evolution.
Beccles
Beccles is a small market town in Suffolk, England, around the area of The Broads. The town had a population of about 9, 850 people around 2005. Beccles has a suburb called Worlingham which has a combined population of about 13,580. Beccles is twinned with Petit-Couronne in France.
Beccles was once a flourishing Saxon riverport, but today it is in the Waveney valley. There is a popular boating centre. The town was granted its Charter in 1584 by Queen Elizabeth I.
The Peck family was associated with Beccles for a long time. The Puritan Peck was eventually forced to leave, and went to Hingham, Massachusetts, founded by many members of his parish, where he lived for several years, until King Charles I had been executed and Oliver Cromwell was in charge of government. At that time, Robert Peck decided to return to Hingham, Norfolk, and continued his pastorship of St. Andrews Church. He died in Hingham but he left descendants in America, as well as his brother Joseph Peck, who settled in Rehoboth, Massachusetts.
Lamarckism
Lamarckism (also called Lamarckian evolution) is a hypothesis regarding evolution. Evolution tries to explain how species change over time. Today, the only widely accepted theory of evolution is that developed from the ideas of Charles Darwin.
Lamarckism was developed by Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck. He based his ideas, to some extent, on those of Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles Darwin. Lamarckism says that individuals do not only pass on the things they received from their parents, but also some things they experienced during their lifetime. As an example, he cited giraffes. Giraffes, which have long necks, must have evolved from ancestors with much shorter necks. His idea was that adults needed to stretch their neck to reach leaves from high branches. Therefore, he thought, the children inherited longer necks. This idea is called "the inheritance of acquired characteristics".
Although Darwin did not entirely break with these ideas, his characteristic idea of natural selection relates to the individuals's relative survival and success in reproduction. Better adapted forms leave, on average, more offspring. This changes the proportion of alleles in the population.
Gregor Mendel discovered some basic rules of heredity. These rules of Mendelian inheritance contradict Lamarck's hypotheses entirely, but are consistent with natural selection. This explains why Lamarck's ideas are no longer regarded as a sound explanation of evolution. Where Lamarck and Darwin do agree is that evolution did take place.
The identification of "Lamarckism" with the inheritance of acquired characteristics alone is regarded by some as an over-simplification, rehashed in textbooks repeatedly. Stephen Jay Gould wrote that late 19th century evolutionists "re-read Lamarck, cast aside the guts of it... and elevated one aspect of the mechanics – inheritance of acquired characters – to a central focus it never had for Lamarck himself". He argued that "the restriction of Lamarckism to this relatively small and non-distinctive corner of Lamarck's thought must be labelled as more than a misnomer, and truly a discredit to the memory of a man and his much more comprehensive system". Gould advocated defining "Lamarckism" more broadly, in line with Lamarck's overall evolutionary theory.
However, as scientist historians such as Michael Ghiselin and Stephen Jay Gould have pointed out, none of these views were original to Lamarck. On the contrary, Lamarck's contribution was a systematic theoretical framework for understanding evolution. He saw evolution as comprising two processes;
In essence, a change in the environment brings about a change in needs ("besoins"), resulting in a change in behavior, bringing change in organ usage and development, bringing change in form over time — and thus the gradual transmutation (change) of the species.
The modern point of view is that neither of his two 'forces' exists; Lamarck can be credited with the first fully worked-out account of evolution. However, his ideas of how it came about are entirely mistaken.
Darwinism
Darwinism is a term used to talk about ideas connected to those Charles Darwin had about evolution. The meaning of 'Darwinism' has changed over time, and depends on who uses the term.
The term was coined by Thomas Henry Huxley in April 1860. He used it to describe evolutionary concepts, including similar ideas such as Malthusianism and Spencerism. In the late 19th century it came to mean the concept that natural selection was the only mechanism of evolution, in contrast to Lamarckism. Around 1900, Gregor Mendel's work was rediscovered. Today, Darwin and Mendel's ideas have been brought together. The term 'Darwinism' has become associated with the modern evolutionary synthesis.
Istria
Istria (Croatian, Slovene: "Istra", Italian: "Istria"), formerly Histria (Latin), is the biggest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea.
Source: Croatian Census - 2001. Slovenian Census - 2002. Italian Census - 1970/2001
Prenatal diagnosis
Prenatal testing or Prenatal diagnosis are tests done on pregnant women. They are used to test fetuses for birth defects and some genetic disorders.
Prenatal tests can be non-invasive or invasive. Non-invasive tests include things like utrasounds. In invasive tests, a needle is inserted - for example, to get a sample of fluid from the placenta).
Prenatal tests can check for many conditions, like:
In some cases, the tests are administered to determine if the parents want to abort the fetus.
In some cases, fetal screening has been done to identify things that are not birth defects. For example, in some parts of the world, if an ultrasound shows that a fetus is female, it is sometimes aborted. The rise of designer babies raises a number of ethical and legal issues.
Compulsory sterilization
Compulsory sterilization is a term used for laws that force certain groups of people to be sterilized so that they can no longer make babies. International Criminal Court considers compulsory sterilization for a "crime against humanity". Transgender persons are often obliged to undergo sterilization for legal rocognition of legal status depite the Principle 3 of the Yogyakarta Principles.