| "It is clear that modern medicine has created a | | | | population - can we guarantee that everyone will? |
| serious dilemma ... In the past, there were many | | | | How to prevent eugenics from being appropriated |
| children who never survived - they succumbed to | | | | by an intrusive, authoritarian, or even murderous |
| various diseases ... But in a sense modern | | | | state?Modern eugenicists distance themselves |
| medicine has put natural selection out of | | | | from the crude methods adopted at the beginning |
| commission. Something that has helped one | | | | of the last century by 29 countries, including |
| individual over a serious illness can in the long run | | | | Germany, The United States, Canada, Switzerland, |
| contribute to weakening the resistance of the | | | | Austria, Venezuela, Estonia, Argentina, Norway, |
| whole human race to certain diseases. If we pay | | | | Denmark, Sweden (until 1976), Brazil, Italy, |
| absolutely no attention to what is called hereditary | | | | Greece, and Spain.They talk about free |
| hygiene, we could find ourselves facing a | | | | contraceptives for low-IQ women, vasectomies |
| degeneration of the human race. Mankind's | | | | or tubal ligations for criminals, sperm banks with |
| hereditary potential for resisting serious disease | | | | contributions from high achievers, and incentives |
| will be weakened."Jostein Gaarder in "Sophie's | | | | for college students to procreate. Modern genetic |
| World", a bestselling philosophy textbook for | | | | engineering and biotechnology are readily applicable |
| adolescents published in Oslo, Norway, in 1991 and, | | | | to eugenic projects. Cloning can serve to |
| afterwards, throughout the world, having been | | | | preserve the genes of the fittest. Embryo |
| translated to dozens of languages.The Nazis | | | | selection and prenatal diagnosis of genetically |
| regarded the murder of the feeble-minded and | | | | diseased embryos can reduce the number of the |
| the mentally insane - intended to purify the race | | | | unfit.But even these innocuous variants of |
| and maintain hereditary hygiene - as a form of | | | | eugenics fly in the face of liberalism. Inequality, |
| euthanasia. German doctors were enthusiastic | | | | claim the proponents of hereditary amelioration, is |
| proponents of an eugenics movements rooted in | | | | genetic, not environmental. All men are created |
| 19th century social Darwinism. Luke Gormally | | | | unequal and as much subject to the natural laws |
| writes, in his essay "Walton, Davies, and Boyd" | | | | of heredity as are cows and bees. Inferior people |
| (published in "Euthanasia Examined - Ethical, Clinical, | | | | give birth to inferior offspring and, thus, propagate |
| and Legal Perspectives", ed. John Keown, | | | | their inferiority.Even if this were true - which is at |
| Cambridge University Press, 1995):"When the | | | | best debatable - the question is whether the |
| jurist Karl Binding and the psychiatrist Alfred | | | | inferior specimen of our species possess the |
| Hoche published their tract The Permission to | | | | inalienable right to reproduce? If society is to bear |
| Destroy Life that is Not Worth Living in 1920 ... | | | | the costs of over-population - social welfare, |
| their motive was to rid society of the 'human | | | | medical care, daycare centers - then society has |
| ballast and enormous economic burden' of care | | | | the right to regulate procreation. But does it have |
| for the mentally ill, the handicapped, retarded and | | | | the right to act discriminately in doing so?Another |
| deformed children, and the incurably ill. But the | | | | dilemma is whether we have the moral right - let |
| reason they invoked to justify the killing of human | | | | alone the necessary knowledge - to interfere with |
| beings who fell into these categories was that the | | | | natural as well as social and demographic trends. |
| lives of such human beings were 'not worth living', | | | | Eugenicists counter that contraception and |
| were 'devoid of value'"It is this association with | | | | indiscriminate medicine already do just that. Yet, |
| the hideous Nazi regime that gave eugenics - a | | | | studies show that the more affluent and |
| term coined by a relative of Charles Darwin, Sir | | | | educated a population becomes - the less fecund |
| Francis Galton, in 1883 - its bad name. Richard | | | | it is. Birth rates throughout the world have |
| Lynn, of the University of Ulster of North Ireland, | | | | dropped dramatically already.Instead of culling the |
| thinks that this recoil resulted in "Dysgenics - the | | | | great unwashed and the unworthy - wouldn't it be |
| genetic deterioration of modern (human) | | | | a better idea to educate them (or their off-spring) |
| population", as the title of his controversial tome | | | | and provide them with economic opportunities |
| puts it.The crux of the argument for eugenics is | | | | (euthenics rather than eugenics)? Human |
| that a host of technological, cultural, and social | | | | populations seem to self-regulate. A gentle and |
| developments conspired to give rise to negative | | | | persistent nudge in the right direction - of |
| selection of the weakest, least intelligent, sickest, | | | | increased affluence and better schooling - might |
| the habitually criminal, the sexually deviant, the | | | | achieve more than a hundred eugenic programs, |
| mentally-ill, and the least adapted.Contraception is | | | | voluntary or compulsory.That eugenics presents |
| more widely used by the affluent and the | | | | itself not merely as a biological-social agenda, but |
| well-educated than by the destitute and dull. Birth | | | | as a panacea, ought to arouse suspicion. The |
| control as practiced in places like China distorted | | | | typical eugenics text reads more like a catechism |
| both the sex distribution in the cities - and | | | | than a reasoned argument. Previous |
| increased the weight of the rural population (rural | | | | all-encompassing and omnicompetent plans tended |
| couples in China are allowed to have two children | | | | to end traumatically - especially when they |
| rather than the urban one).Modern medicine and | | | | contrasted a human elite with a dispensable |
| the welfare state collaborate in sustaining alive | | | | underclass of persons.Above all, eugenics is about |
| individuals - mainly the mentally retarded, the | | | | human hubris. To presume to know better than |
| mentally ill, the sick, and the genetically defective - | | | | the lottery of life is haughty. Modern medicine |
| who would otherwise have been culled by natural | | | | largely obviates the need for eugenics in that it |
| selection to the betterment of the entire | | | | allows even genetically defective people to lead |
| species.Eugenics may be based on a literal | | | | pretty normal lives. Of course, Man himself - being |
| understanding of Darwin's metaphor.The 2002 | | | | part of Nature - may be regarded as nothing |
| edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica has this to | | | | more than an agent of natural selection. Still, |
| say:"Darwin's description of the process of natural | | | | many of the arguments advanced in favor of |
| selection as the survival of the fittest in the | | | | eugenics can be turned against it with |
| struggle for life is a metaphor. 'Struggle' does not | | | | embarrassing ease.Consider sick children. True, |
| necessarily mean contention, strife, or combat; | | | | they are a burden to society and a probable |
| 'survival' does not mean that ravages of death | | | | menace to the gene pool of the species. But they |
| are needed to make the selection effective; and | | | | also inhibit further reproduction in their family by |
| 'fittest' is virtually never a single optimal genotype | | | | consuming the financial and mental resources of |
| but rather an array of genotypes that collectively | | | | the parents. Their genes - however flawed - |
| enhance population survival rather than extinction. | | | | contribute to genetic diversity. Even a badly |
| All these considerations are most apposite to | | | | mutated phenotype sometimes yields precious |
| consideration of natural selection in humans. | | | | scientific knowledge and an interesting |
| Decreasing infant and childhood mortality rates do | | | | genotype.The implicit Weltbild of eugenics is static |
| not necessarily mean that natural selection in the | | | | - but the real world is dynamic. There is no such |
| human species no longer operates. Theoretically, | | | | thing as a "correct" genetic makeup towards |
| natural selection could be very effective if all the | | | | which we must all strive. A combination of genes |
| children born reached maturity. Two conditions are | | | | may be perfectly adaptable to one environment - |
| needed to make this theoretical possibility realized: | | | | but woefully inadequate in another. It is therefore |
| first, variation in the number of children per family | | | | prudent to encourage genetic diversity or |
| and, second, variation correlated with the genetic | | | | polymorphism.The more rapidly the world |
| properties of the parents. Neither of these | | | | changes, the greater the value of mutations of all |
| conditions is farfetched."The eugenics debate is | | | | sorts. One never knows whether today's |
| only the visible extremity of the Man vs. Nature | | | | maladaptation will not prove to be tomorrow's |
| conundrum. Have we truly conquered nature and | | | | winner. Ecosystems are invariably comprised of |
| extracted ourselves from its determinism? Have | | | | niches and different genes - even mutated ones - |
| we graduated from natural to cultural evolution, | | | | may fit different niches.In the 18th century most |
| from natural to artificial selection, and from genes | | | | peppered moths in Britain were silvery gray, |
| to memes?Does the evolutionary process | | | | indistinguishable from lichen-covered trunks of |
| culminate in a being that transcends its genetic | | | | silver birches - their habitat. Darker moths were |
| baggage, that programs and charts its future, and | | | | gobbled up by rapacious birds. Their mutated |
| that allows its weakest and sickest to survive? | | | | genes proved to be lethal. As soot from sprouting |
| Supplanting the imperative of the survival of the | | | | factories blackened these trunks - the very same |
| fittest with a culturally-sensitive principle may be | | | | genes, hitherto fatal, became an unmitigated |
| the hallmark of a successful evolution, rather than | | | | blessing. The blacker specimen survived while their |
| the beginning of an inexorable decline.The eugenics | | | | hitherto perfectly adapted fairer brethren perished |
| movement turns this argument on its head. They | | | | ("industrial melanism"). This mode of natural |
| accept the premise that the contribution of | | | | selection is called directional.Moreover, "bad" genes |
| natural selection to the makeup of future human | | | | are often connected to "desirable genes" |
| generations is glacial and negligible. But they reject | | | | (pleitropy). Sickle cell anemia protects certain |
| the conclusion that, having ridden ourselves of its | | | | African tribes against malaria. This is called |
| tyranny, we can now let the weak and sick | | | | "diversifying or disruptive natural selection". |
| among us survive and multiply. Rather, they | | | | Artificial selection can thus fast deteriorate into |
| propose to replace natural selection with | | | | adverse selection due to ignorance.Modern |
| eugenics.But who, by which authority, and | | | | eugenics relies on statistics. It is no longer |
| according to what guidelines will administer this | | | | concerned with causes - but with phenomena and |
| man-made culling and decide who is to live and | | | | the likely effects of intervention. If the adverse |
| who is to die, who is to breed and who may not? | | | | traits of off-spring and parents are strongly |
| Why select by intelligence and not by courtesy or | | | | correlated - then preventing parents with certain |
| altruism or church-going - or al of them together? | | | | undesirable qualities from multiplying will surely |
| It is here that eugenics fails miserably. Should the | | | | reduce the incidence of said dispositions in the |
| criterion be physical, like in ancient Sparta? Should | | | | general population. Yet, correlation does not |
| it be mental? Should IQ determine one's fate - or | | | | necessarily imply causation. The manipulation of |
| social status or wealth? Different answers yield | | | | one parameter of the correlation does not |
| disparate eugenic programs and target dissimilar | | | | inevitably alter it - or the incidence of the |
| groups in the population.Aren't eugenic criteria liable | | | | outcome.Eugenicists often hark back to wisdom |
| to be unduly influenced by fashion and cultural | | | | garnered by generations of breeders and farmers. |
| bias? Can we agree on a universal eugenic agenda | | | | But the unequivocal lesson of thousands of years |
| in a world as ethnically and culturally diverse as | | | | of artificial selection is that cross-breeding |
| ours? If we do get it wrong - and the chances | | | | (hybridization) - even of two lines of inferior |
| are overwhelming - will we not damage our gene | | | | genetic stock - yields valuable genotypes. |
| pool irreparably and, with it, the future of our | | | | Inter-marriage between races, groups in the |
| species?And even if many will avoid a slippery | | | | population, ethnic groups, and clans is thus bound |
| slope leading from eugenics to active | | | | to improve the species' chances of survival more |
| extermination of "inferior" groups in the general | | | | than any eugenic scheme. |