This is ATS so of course eugenics has been discussed. We all know about the old eugenics movement. Population control has been touted as the only
way to save humanity since the inception of Eugenics in the early 1900s.
There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to population control. Of course there is the argument that humans are like a cancer and need to be
regulated. Then there is the camp that says the sanctity of life out weighs any negative effect on our planet or species.
It is my belief that most of us fall somewhere inbetween these two ideologies. What I want to do with this thread is give a short history of
Eugenics, present ideas from both sides, and explain why I believe if conducted properly eugenics could be one of the most important endeavors of the
human species.
The word eugenics derives from the Greek word eu (good or well) and the suffix -genēs (born), and was coined by Sir Francis Galton in 1883, who
defined it as "the study of all agencies under human control which can improve or impair the racial quality of future generations".
As a social movement eugenics reached its height of popularity in the early decades of the 20th century. By the end of World War II eugenics had been
largely abandoned,[2] though current trends in genetics have raised questions amongst critical academics concerning parallels between pre-war
attitudes about eugenics and current "utilitarian" and social darwinistic theories[3]. At its pre-war zenith, the movement often pursued
pseudoscientific notions of racial supremacy and purity.[4]
Eugenics was practiced around the world and was promoted by governments, and influential individuals and institutions. Its advocates regarded it as a
social philosophy for the improvement of human hereditary traits through the promotion of higher reproduction of certain people and traits, and the
reduction of reproduction of certain people and traits.
Today it is widely regarded as a brutal movement which inflicted massive human rights violations on millions of people. The "interventions"
advocated and practised by eugenicists involved prominently the identification and classification of individuals and their families, including the
poor, mentally ill, blind, "promiscuous" women, homosexuals and entire "racial" groups——such as the Roma and Jews——as "degenerate" or
"unfit"; the segregation or institutionalisation of such individuals and groups, their sterilization, euthanasia, and in the extreme case of Nazi
Germany, their mass extermination.
en.wikipedia.org...
OK. . . So Eugenics is bad. At least in the extremes it has been taken to in the past, but does that mean that all principles of Eugenics are bad?
There are three main ways by which the methods of eugenics can be applied.[citation needed] One is mandatory eugenics or authoritarian eugenics,
in which the government mandates a eugenics program. Policies and/or legislation is often seen as being coercive and restrictive.
Another is promotional voluntary eugenics, in which eugenics is voluntarily practiced and promoted to the general population, but not officially
mandated. This is a form of non-state enforced eugenics, using a liberal or democratic approach, which can mostly be seen in the 1900s. The third is
private eugenics, which is practiced voluntarily by individuals and groups, but not promoted to the general population.
en.wikipedia.org...
The idea of forced sterilizations and abortions is disturbing to most people as it should be.
However in theory it is not so bad. Mentaly handicapped people with potential to produce more mentaly handicapped (be it retarted, criminal, insane)
people not being allowed to procreate seems on the surface to be a fantastic idea.
The underlying horror begins when you begin to define mentaly handicapped. Severe mental retardation aside it has been suggested (early in the
eugenics movement) that anyone with an unsound mind is handicapped. The depressed the hyperactive, the uneducated, and the colored were all thought to
be mentally undesireable.
Another driveing force in the Eugenics movement has been race.
Nazi eugenics were Nazi Germany's racially-based social policies that placed the improvement of the race through eugenics at the center of their
concerns and targeted those humans they identified as "life unworthy of life" (German Lebensunwertes Leben), including but not limited to the
criminal, degenerate, dissident, feeble-minded, homosexual, idle, insane, religious, and weak, for elimination from the chain of heredity. More than
400,000 people were sterilized against their will, while 70,000 were killed in the Action
We all know racial genocide is wrong. We killed many many Nazi's under the guise of stopping a genocide of the Jews. The funny (not really) thing
is they based their ideas on what we were doing right here at home in America
The Nazis based their eugenics program on the United States' programs of forced sterilization.[6]
The Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, proclaimed on July 14, 1933, required physicians to register every case of hereditary
illness known to them, except in women over forty-five years of age.[7] Physicians could be fined for failing to comply.
After the end of World War II the eugenics movement was largely abandoned.
Since the postwar period, both the public and the scientific communities have associated eugenics with Nazi abuses, such as enforced racial
hygiene, human experimentation, and the extermination of "undesired" population groups. However, developments in genetic, genomic, and reproductive
technologies at the end of the 20th century have raised many new questions and concerns about what exactly constitutes the meaning of eugenics and
what its ethical and moral status is in the modern era.
The 10 principles of true eugenics are outlined in the Georgia Guidestones (a mystery in their own right)
The principles are as follows
1.Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2.Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity.
3.Unite humanity with a living new language.
4.Rule passion - faith - tradition - and all things with tempered reason.
5.Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6.Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7.Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8.Balance personal rights with social duties.
9.Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite.
10.Be not a cancer on the earth - Leave room for nature - Leave room for nature.
Aside from number 1 its extremely hard for even me (who believes highly in the sanctity of life) to say these principles are bad.
Never have these been implemented in a way that wasn't a complete twisting of the true ideas.
Let us consider momentarily each of these rules (aside from #1)
#2 Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity.
This one is a tricky one for me. If you look at it from the sterilization point you can obviously see its shortcomings. However if you paint it with
the genetic manipulation brush it could be a real medical godsend. (please don't argue about the exsistance of god here thats not the point)
Repairing cancerous genes before passing the damage down through generations in a matter of just 20 years or so cancer could literally be bred out of
humanity. (barring new cases caused by free radicals)
#3 Unite humanity with a living new language.
This one is possibly the only one that is actually happening without the aid or a big push by man himself. English is the language of science
mathematics and business. It brings us closer as a species and shrinks our world considerably.
#4 Rule passion - faith - tradition - and all things with tempered reason
This one is obvious to me. . . .
