Eugenics: Here, There, and Everywhere

How much thought have you given to eugenics? How much do you even know about eugenics? Until this year I barely knew what eugenics was, much less had I given the concept much thought, but now that I’ve learned about eugenics it seems to be everywhere.

Eugenics was promoted in 20th Century America as a part of the Progressive Movement, so this seemed the perfect forum for discussion about eugenics. With this post I hope to pique the interest of fellow bloggers as to the pervasiveness of eugenics so that we might ponder and debate specific instances of eugenics that appear in the news.

Basically eugenics is selective breeding, but it can be so much more than that; it varies from shy and subtle to voracious and virulent. Nazism is a prominent example, but eugenics isn’t always so obvious and pernicious. In a more familiar form, eugenics is present in the vaccinations of our public health system and the standardized tests of our educational system.

One of the most intriguing things about eugenics to me is that it can exist as a dreadful, ill-conceived thing at one time, then later emerge as a seemingly plausible solution. And I wonder, is there such a thing as an acceptable, moral application of eugenic principles? Or is the concept inherently reprehensible?

Since Wikipedia summarizes eugenics better than I ever could, here’s an excerpt from the full article if you haven’t had the good fortune to take a class about eugenics:

Eugenics is a social philosophy which advocates the improvement of human hereditary traits through various forms of intervention.[1] The goals of various groups advocating eugenics have included the creation of healthier, more intelligent people, to save society's resources, and lessen human suffering, as well as desires to breed for optimal qualities.

Earlier proposed means of achieving these goals focused on selective breeding, while modern ones focus on prenatal testing and screening, genetic counseling, birth control, in vitro fertilization, and genetic engineering. Opponents argue that eugenics is immoral and is based on, or is itself, pseudoscience. Historically, eugenics has been used as a justification for coercive state-sponsored discrimination and human rights violations, such as forced sterilization of persons who are claimed to have genetic defects, the killing of the institutionalized and, in some cases, outright genocide of races perceived as inferior or undesirable.

Breeding of human beings was suggested at least as far back as Plato, but the modern field and term was first formulated by Sir Francis Galton in 1865, drawing on the recent work of his cousin Charles Darwin. ... [full article]

Thoughts?