In this paper I argue that the early moral philosophy of Ákos Pauler was informed by eugenic and racial hygienic theories of his age. Perhaps one of the key social theorists of his time was the British philosopher Herbert Spencer who arguably had an infl uence on the moral theories of Pauler as well. Pauler became an infl uential theoretician in Hungary during the interwar period. His ideological commitments to Christinity and national values made him favorable to the authoritarian politics of the 1920s and 30s. His signifi cance lasted until the end of the 1940s; during the Socialist period from 1948 to 1989 Pauler's heritage was played down because of the idological divide between the two political eras. However, after the transition, the works of Pauler were rediscovered and my study contributes to this strand of research from an intersectional perspective. In this paper I will analyze how conceptulizations of race and gender structured their moral theories in which the responsibility of women was understood in terms of their reproductive contribution to their country's racial future. I claim that Pauler's early moral philosophy rests on racially informed principles that justify gender subordination. 1
This paper describes the means by which medical professionals of the socialist period integrated interwar public hygiene practices into the health management of gypsies from the perspective of the public health interest of the majority. In these practices, ethnic/racial stereotypes shaped public health action. Public-health officials justified these actions on the basis of their fear that gypsies would spread diseases if their hygiene issues were not controlled. A further development occurred in the discourse when gypsy ethnic identity came to be recognized as an important statistical variable in determining healthy birth rates. Regarding this question, it will be demonstrated that ethnic identity as a variable, appeared in the medical discourse as a problem that offset the overall reproductive statistics of the state. It is argued that the medical professional discourse with its arguments, practices, and measures, point towards a continuity between the interwar and socialist periods' public health regarding racial thinking.
ArgumentThis study contributes to the discussion on the development of eugenics in Central-Eastern Europe by tracing the way that eugenic ideas entered into medical decision-making in Hungary. Through a case study that reviews the professional argumentation of the gynecological management of tuberculosis pregnancies, this paper shows that the subordination of individual reproductive rights to state interests was influenced by the ideas of eugenics, which had begun to enter into the professional public health discourse. A eugenically informed morality was envisioned, to guide decision-making in the interest of the Hungarian “race.” This biopolitically important morality can be viewed as an early influence on the formulation of biological citizenship. Leading figures were divided on how to ensure such morality: some scholars argued that education is the key, others thought that the state, and state actors, should act radically in the interest of the population and decide on behalf of the individual. Radical methods, such as the termination of pregnancies and sterilization of women, were among the practices of gynecologists. Although abortion and sterilization were not widespread and never became official therapeutic solutions for tuberculosis pregnancies, they were nonetheless part of a discourse that preceded the eugenic institutions of the interwar years.
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