We must de-stigmatize eugenics

[Rev. Rye]

1) Would you prefer to marry a good-looking man or woman?

2) Would you abort if you knew your child would have Down's syndrome?

If you answered "Yes" to any of these questions, you already support eugenics.

No one doubts that it is immoral to involuntarily sterilize individuals let alone entire races. But all parents want healthy children and in 15 years, we will even have genetic tests for mental illnesses. It would be immoral not to abort if you knew your fetus had all the genes for schizophrenia. 

We ought to free the word eugenics from the stigma it has been received thanks to the Nazis and others. I'd wager that most of the research in genetics today is going to be used in eugenics in the future, regardless of whether we refer to it that way.

Of course, maybe I'd answer yes to #1 because I want to like looking at someone I'd want to spend the rest of my time with, and maybe I'd answer yes to #2 because I don't like spending more time around kids than I absolutely have to and I wouldn't want to spend the next 18 years caring for one, even if it was perfectly healthy.

And, for the record, as crucial as the excesses of the Nazi regime are to discrediting eugenics, the other crucial part is that, well, it's far less practical than people who've dabbled in genetics might think. Seriously, read up on epigenetics and tell me with a straight face that eugenics is still a plausible science. Beauty in particular is something that frequently has as much to do with nurture as nature. And also cosmetics, which are even further from nature than nurture. Indeed, selecting for phenotypic traits can be done, but, eventually, this is where it leads you, especially if you try to keep it purebred:





Adam exaggerates the problems exhibited in these purebred dogs, to be honest, but only slightly. When he says "all" when talking about the traits these dogs developed, think "the vast majority." Not necessarily all, but look at that bulldog, with its head so big 80% have to be delivered by cesarean section, nostrils so small that breathing normally can become hard (and also, hyperthermia is a major problem, which Adam doesn't mention), a body that can barely support the exercise necessary to keep its weight low enough to keep its joints (in addition to its heart and lungs) from fucking up, and a lifespan that's 5/8 what it should be. All because some people became obsessed with perfecting it through eugenics. Keep it up, this is what you will get.

In practice, Eugenics is reductive to the point of absurdity. Rehabilitating the discipline would require a massive overhaul of what it would actually mean (at least as big as the overhaul in atomic theory between Democritus and Dalton, likely bigger).