Virgin Hospitals

1945: Mrs. Lenora Hawkes Jones came up with the idea of having a network of "virgin hospitals" throughout America which would house lovely and brainy women willing to bear children by suitable men in order to "improve the race." Suitable men would be those who didn't drink or smoke, and who weren't 'evil-minded.'

Didn't the nazis have some kind of scheme like this going?

Brooklyn Daily Eagle - Mar 7, 1926

Piqua Daily Call - Nov 2, 1945

A network of "virgin hospitals" in every state of the union where "our loveliest and brainiest" unmarried women would produce a new generation of super-babies by test tube is the solution offered by Mrs. Lenora Hawkes Jones, 76-year-old Washington inventor, to counteract the war-born husband shortage. Mrs. Jones, a graduate of the Bangor (Me.) theological seminary draws the line at men who smoke or drink in choosing the fathers, and advocates extreme caution to weed out the "evil-minded" applicants. Her proposed hospitals would completely eliminate the "personal factor," employ only women doctors, and the super-babies commended to the state for care."
-acme photo caption

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Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over forty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. Contact Us

Posted By: Alex - Fri Nov 17, 2017
Category: Eccentrics | Crackpots | 1940s

Comments

This sounds much like the philosophy of eugenics and, yes, a fringe portion of the National Socialists did advocate for a program of "improving" the breed of "pure blood" Germans. But that's a long subject with tragic outcomes for thousands of innocents.

Robert Heinlein used the ideas of eugenics as the basis for the Howard Family series, where a trust paid people to interbreed for longevity and research prevention of aging and rejuvenation treatments.

Posted by KDP on 11/17/17 at 07:40 AM

Nope, nothing weird or creepy about this at all.

Posted by Brian on 11/17/17 at 11:04 AM

I prefer Niven's (Ringworld) approach to eugenics -- while the government controls who can have children based on good genes, an alien race secretly forces the adoption of a lottery to give everyone a chance. Then they track the children of these lottery winners to see which ones also win the lottery, and which of their children win the lottery, etc..

Breeding for luck might not be a high priority for most people who believe in eugenics, but I find it one of the most interesting ideas.

Posted by Phideaux on 11/17/17 at 11:20 AM

Lebensborn- an SS program that matched SS soldiers with racially suitable women.

Posted by F.U.D. on 11/17/17 at 01:31 PM

"Eugenics was practiced in the United States many years before eugenics programs in Nazi Germany, which were largely inspired by the previous American work."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics_in_the_United_States

Posted by Robb of Warren on 11/18/17 at 10:19 AM

@KDP The difference being that in Heinlein's books the Howard Family breeding program was voluntary. I don't find any moral quandaries in a strictly voluntary program.

Posted by PupTentacle on 11/18/17 at 11:25 AM

Looks like the idea was used afterwards in Bosnia. However, outside observers prefered to call their "virgin hospitals" "rape camps" and "whorehouses".

Posted by Yudith on 11/19/17 at 07:42 AM

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