Eugenics is a set of beliefs and practices that aims at improving the genetic quality of the human population. It is a social philosophy advocating the improvement of human genetic traits through the promotion of higher rates of sexual reproduction for people with desired traits, or reduced rates of sexual reproduction and sterilization of people with less-desired or undesired traits, or both.

In Nazi Germany, eugenics foregrounded racial policies and legitimized strategic extermination.

​Definition adapted from Wikipedia, August 17, 2016.