Mae Webster, age 15, of Greenville, Miss., for her question:

WHAT IS EUGENICS?

Eugenics is the science that studies the inherited characteristics of people and how they may be improved. Positive eugenics aims to improve the human race by having more births among people with good mental and physical features while negative eugenics tries to have fewer births among those with less desirable features.

Most doctors strive to tell their patients who have certain genetic defects that these defects may be passed on to their children. Also, many states now have laws which control the marriage of persons with certain kinds of physical or mental handicaps.

Eugenics was used in Nazi Germany under Hitler for negative political purposes.

In the United States, the Eugenics Society is involved in the study of human heredity.