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