I don’t think there is an organised programme aimed at “improving” the genetic constitution of the human race on any large scale in place, at least I really hope not! There are certainly some genetic-based interventions that occur that affect which babies get born which affect the make-up of families and/or populations:
– people select babies by gender (genetic testing is the earliest way of telling gender in pregnancy)
– there are screening programmes for certain genetic conditions like Down Syndrome in many countries and this does affect how many individuals are both with those conditions (e.g. Iceland has very few babies born with Down Syndrome)
– there is availability of prenatal testing (with potential to terminate pregnancies) for foetus’ at risk for genetic disorders
– there is the ability to select which embryos to implant via IVF so as to avoid implanting embryos carrying genetic conditions that affect the family (pre-implantation genetic diagnosis)
I wouldn’t classify these as eugenics per se though some would; where would you draw the line?
As Gemma says, it does depend exactly how you choose to define ‘eugenics’. There have been many strategies for eugenics over the centuries: forced sterilization of people thought unsuitable to have children was not uncommon in the 20th century. Our increased knowledge of genetics certainly provides more opportunity to intervene and I hope our societies can use this knowledge responsibly.
There have been many examples of eugenics throughout the 20th century. It was quite a respectable science in the early half until the Nazis and WW2…
Nevertheless, forced sterilization persisted in Sweden until the 1970s for people with certain
mental and physical conditions.
Still in countries today there is incentivised sterilization. Men and women in India are paid to
get sterilized if they want to (and some do).
The idea is to improve society by preventing unwanted births or births that would place a burden on the parents and wider society. Of course such plans can easily go wrong as the lessons of the 20th century teach us.
You could also argue that being picky about who you have children with is a form of eugenics (known as sexual selection). People with attractive traits will pass them on to their offspring, thus changing the gene pool of future generations. This is a form of selection which is extremely commonplace and usually non-controversial.
Comments
Ed commented on :
There have been many examples of eugenics throughout the 20th century. It was quite a respectable science in the early half until the Nazis and WW2…
Nevertheless, forced sterilization persisted in Sweden until the 1970s for people with certain
mental and physical conditions.
Still in countries today there is incentivised sterilization. Men and women in India are paid to
get sterilized if they want to (and some do).
The idea is to improve society by preventing unwanted births or births that would place a burden on the parents and wider society. Of course such plans can easily go wrong as the lessons of the 20th century teach us.
You could also argue that being picky about who you have children with is a form of eugenics (known as sexual selection). People with attractive traits will pass them on to their offspring, thus changing the gene pool of future generations. This is a form of selection which is extremely commonplace and usually non-controversial.