My take on eugenics
You know how fascinated I have always been with the concept of twins, doppelgangers, dead ringers and how I look forward to meeting my double someday. So for this week’s post I thought I should explore eugenics, cloning and all that jazz.
The term eugenics roughly means improving human genetic qualities or the human gene pool. So one would (in layman’s terms) sterilize people with bad genes and alter the hereditary makeup of the offspring of the ones with good genes to enhance human physical and cognitive abilities and improve the human condition (like maybe eliminating a hereditary disease). People will be able to live longer and healthier lifestyles, by injecting an artificial chromosome into a fertilized egg to cancel the effects of a genetic illness. There are endless possibilities and this science might affect the entire human race for the better.
But let me tell you in the same breath, the desired traits in a human are debatable. There is no certain rule or consensus which says this is a good or bad trait and determining a beneficial trait is a crunch and is mostly guided by culture or social class. What one culture might perceive to be an intelligent trait may actually be a negative or not-so-intelligent trait in another culture.
But then again, if that is answered, I say “When you are not opposed to selective breeding of animals, why eugenics? It is after all self direction of human evolution* .”
The term eugenics roughly means improving human genetic qualities or the human gene pool. So one would (in layman’s terms) sterilize people with bad genes and alter the hereditary makeup of the offspring of the ones with good genes to enhance human physical and cognitive abilities and improve the human condition (like maybe eliminating a hereditary disease). People will be able to live longer and healthier lifestyles, by injecting an artificial chromosome into a fertilized egg to cancel the effects of a genetic illness. There are endless possibilities and this science might affect the entire human race for the better.
But let me tell you in the same breath, the desired traits in a human are debatable. There is no certain rule or consensus which says this is a good or bad trait and determining a beneficial trait is a crunch and is mostly guided by culture or social class. What one culture might perceive to be an intelligent trait may actually be a negative or not-so-intelligent trait in another culture.
But then again, if that is answered, I say “When you are not opposed to selective breeding of animals, why eugenics? It is after all self direction of human evolution* .”
I'd love to hear your viewpoint. So do go ahead and leave me a comment.
* Second International Congress of Eugenics, 1921
posted by chérie at
1:08 PM
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