Sweden: Sweden began an investigation yesterday aimed at explaining how eugenics, a theory on improving the human race used by Nazi Germany to justify the Holocaust, became broadly accepted in the Nordic state in the early 20th century.
Sweden is now known for its strong social welfare system and as outspoken advocacy of human rights, but in the past it had experimented with social engineering. This led to abuses such as the forcible sterilisation of about 60,000 women between 1936 and 1976.
In 1922, the National Institute for Race Biology was founded, with support from a range of political parties. The first of its kind in the world, the institute investigated whether race was a determining factor in illness or human character traits.
"An overarching question is to find out more about the kind of society which could develop thinking on race biology and have scientifically accepted research in that area," education minister Leif Pagrotsky said in a statement.
The Living History Forum, a government body with a remit to spread "a deeper knowledge about crimes against humanity", was appointed to chart what is known about the Swedish history of eugenics and, if necessary, to conduct further research on the issue.
The forum was founded by Social Democrat prime minister Goran Persson's government in 2003, mainly to improve public knowledge about the Holocaust, in which some six million Jews were killed by the Nazis and their allies between 1933 and 1945.
The Swedish eugenics research body was merged in the 1950s with a university genetics department.
Other negative aspects of Sweden's past have come to light recently.
The government this month promised an official inquiry into claims by thousands of Swedes that they suffered physical abuse and cruel treatment in state children's homes during several decades dating back to the 1950s. - (Reuters)