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Eugenics Reflection on Past and Current Activities
The negative feelings and perceptions many have about eugenics have been founded on previous evidence where the practice was found to have been used to limit the growth of some races. The racial prejudices are shocking in their ferocity. The initial step towards evil is the ridicule or vilification of the victim. Many individuals have been objectified and described as waste or animals, making it thinkable or possible for the public to accept the discrimination or denial of rights to certain races, first through segregation and institutionalization and then through involuntary sterilization or even downright genocide as the case was in Nazi Germany. Even though the racism, bigotry, discrimination and pseudoscience, which was associated with eugenics is rightly deserved, these ills do not in themselves show reason why eugenics ought to be avoided in the future. Much negativity has been attributed to the eugenics movement because at the time when it was founded, it was put to negative use (Chapter Two: eugenics and its shadow, n.d).
At the time, different forms of bias such as class snobbery and racism were openly practiced even by intellectuals, in contrast to the modern polite society where the open display of such biases is shunned. However, this is not to say that such biases are limited to genetics. One of the main concerns of public health authorities back then is that whites could catch the diseases afflicting black people. A reflexive rejection of eugenic practices, owing to the fact that they had such evil proponents is neither ethical nor intellectually serious. The main issue is the moral aspect of eugenic ideas, which ought to be found out, described and evaluated (Chapter Two: eugenics and its shadow, n.d).
It has been argued...
Benefits to individuals already existing would not be direct. For instance, individuals already born could benefit from the productivity of the better humans born through the practice and the freedom of not having a society full of unfit individuals (Chapter Two: eugenics and its shadow, n.d).
However, there are also quite a number of reasons that question the morality and other aspects of eugenics. Practices or policies that seek to control the well-being of future populations by altering the identities of persons to be born in the future presents quite a number of philosophical concerns. Still, those who support the eugenics movement have argued that commercial advertising, conservation policies and macroeconomic decisions also have the same effect of altering future populations. However, how sure can we be that those responsible for controlling eugenics will not favour "undesirable" traits? In such a world where certain traits are favoured over others, there would be lack of diversity or appreciation for different opinions or decisions (Chapter Two: eugenics and its shadow, n.d).
About seven decades ago, eugenicists were used for hateful practices of eliminating those races which they did not want in the future. Thus, Nazi eugenicists opted to eliminate many Jews and other races that they didn't think deserved to share the same space with Germans. Thus, eugenicists are blamed for popularizing the idea of human perfection -- that there exist perfect virtues in people from certain racial extractions, resulting in bias of those who were though not to have the perfect or beneficial traits (Chapter Two: eugenics and its…
References
Allen, G. (2005). Eugenics. Retrieved March 18, 2016 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3424300258.html
Chapter Two: eugenics and its shadow. (n.d.). Retrieved March 18, 2016, from http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/philo/courses/bioethics/Papers/GeneBook/CH2.html
Lombardo, P. A. (2001). The American breed: Nazi eugenics and the origins of the Pioneer Fund. Alb. L. Rev., 65, 743.
McCabe, L. L., & McCabe, E. R. (2011). Down syndrome: coercion and eugenics. Genetics in Medicine, 13(8), 708-710.
Understanding a Diagnosis of Down Syndrome. (n.d.). Retrieved March 19, 2016, from http://www.ndss.org/Resources/New-Expectant-Parents/Understanding-a-Diagnosis-of-Down-Syndrome/
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