Eugenics, once discredited as part of the first wave of social authoritarian progressives that trampled free will for women, handicapped people and minorities, is attempting a 21st century comeback.
One advantage society has now is that the first time eugenics rolled around, there were a whole lot of people with very little education who were steam-rolled by self-styled progressive elites, including a Supreme Court justice named Oliver Wendell Holmes who could turn his bigotry into law. As much as we can complain about science literacy today, it is far ahead of what it was even 25 years ago and well beyond a century back. That debate about the line between good eugenics and bad, rather than blind acceptance of the consensus, will be vital to a policy that makes sense.
Additional Resources:
- “Gattaca alert: Personal genomics meets neo- eugenics,” Genetic Literacy Project
- “The Eugenic Impulse,” Chronicle of Higher Education
- “Sex Selection of Fetuses is a Parental Right,” policymic
View the original article here: Genetic Literacy Project On Neo-Eugenics
