An effort to improve the genetic makeup of a population is known as

Eugenics is the science of improving a population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics. The term eugenics was coined by British explorer and Charles’ Darwin’s’ cousin Francis Galton in 1882, who is influenced by his cousins theory of natural selection. It comes from the Greek roots eu - means"good" and genos means "birth." It is known effort to improve the genetic makeup of a population. Galton believed that the human race could be improved by encouraging people who have "good" genes to marry early and have lots of children, and discouraging people with "bad" genes from procreating at all.