War Against The Weak : Eugenics And America 's Campaign

Eugenics essentially began as a good thing. Early genicists had the intention of improving the quality of the human population by selecting desired traits. Because of the limited knowledge available in the early nineteen-hundreds this approach to changing the gene pool seemed reasonable. The researchers believe that by controlling human “reproductive” conditions like mental retardation psychiatric illness and physical illness / disabilities could be destroyed. The scientific data to prove these statements would never surface.

I support the guidelines outlined by Kitcher for the use of genetic information because of their responsible and ethical nature. I believe that future generations will benefit as a direct consequence of these guidelines. I shall begin by defining eugenics as the study of human genetics to improve inherited characteristics of the human race by the means of controlled selective breeding.

Eugenics is defined, in some way or the other, as the process of reshaping the human race by determining the kinds of people who will be born. As such, there is much debate in the field of eugenics, with authors, like Philip Kitcher, who support laissez-faire or a minimalist approach of eugenics in which eugenic decision-making should be limited only to avoid neurological illnesses and in which parental free choice is valued. Gregory Stock’s essay, The Enhanced and Un-Enhanced, presents otherwise by supporting the position of maximalist eugenics, allowing individuals the full extent in the selection of genes. On the other hand, the film, Gattaca, raises major ethical problems by illustrating a dystopian society resulted by extensive

History throughout the United States has multiple positive and negative attributions that reflect onto today’s society. One circumstance that has been partially neglected was the eugenics movement in America; the notion of eugenics occurring in the United States is infrequently brought up today. According to Dr. Laura Rivard, the average person most likely does not even know what eugenics is. An English intellectual named of Francis Galton is responsible for starting this movement. Eugenics can briefly be defined as exploiting the fundamentals of genetics and heredity for the benefit of superiorizing the human race.

Future eugenicists can extort their knowledge and use it to their advantage. Eugenics is an interesting subject that is co-dependent on society; the future holds great possibilities for acknowledgment in this field of science.

After perusing the suggested articles, I decided on this article for my journal review because of the many facets of its colorful history in addition to its fascinating, and vastly growing, advancements in the area of eugenics. The imminent debates resulting from the conflicting moral and ethical implications arising from the inception, development and evolution of eugenics past and present are of interest.

The topic of eugenics is broad in nature and can mean anything from human sterilization, reproductive genetic technologies (RGT), selective breeding, restrictions on marriage and withholding assistance from the poor and sick. All of this effort is exerted to protect society from the unfit, inferior and ultimately to improve the quality of the gene pool (Camporesi, 2015).

These "science"-based eugenic influences break through the lines of science in to the world of politics, promulgating anti-humanistic views of poor women of colour in the form of legislation fraught with bigotry and baseless generalizations. This political view flows through the judicial system, as courts apply eugenic philosophies in determining who should be sterilized and for what reasons.

In the twentieth century, the eugenics movement assembled a powerful coalition of progressives, intellectuals, and professionals to advocate an agenda of eugenic legal reform. This agenda centered on the belief that many undesirable traits are hereditary and that the government should be permitted to remove those traits from the racial stock. Those who were mentally disabled or ill, or belonged to socially disadvantaged groups were the main targets for the movement. C.W. Saleeby once stated

The idea of eugenics was first introduced by Sir Francis Galton, who believed that the breeding of two wealthy and successful members of society would produce a child superior to that of two members of the lower class. This assumption was based on the idea that genes for success or particular excellence were present in our DNA, which is passed from parent to child. Despite the blatant lack of research, two men, Georges Vacher de Lapouge and Jon Alfred Mjoen, played to the white supremacists' desires and claimed that white genes were inherently superior to other races, and with this base formed the first eugenics society. The American Eugenics Movement attempted to unethically obliterate the rising tide of lower classes by immorally

Eugenics was the hugely popular political movement that began with the in depth study of human heredity. During the 1920s through the 1940s it was seen as a progressive and state-of-the-art- way of thinking, which fueled its popularity. The technical definition of eugenics is the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics. The debate that surrounded eugenics and still does today is the morality of creating someone that only possesses “desirable” characteristics. Who gets to decide what is deemed desirable? The term “Eugenics” was termed by Francis Galton in 1883 and stems from the Greek language meaning “well bred”. Galton was inspired to research the breeding of humans mainly by his cousin Charles Darwin but also by the middle classes of England and the United States. Galton’s studied revolved around variations in the human population through classifications such as race. There has always been a struggle between right and wrong in the Christian religion with the topic of eugenics. The question of who has the power to decide what is the perfect human is a driving force behind the many curiosities and opinions in eugenics. Throughout the research paper I intend to analyze the historical and medical effects of eugenics and how they play a role in Christianity and the success or demise of human life.

From evaluating the history that eugenics has imposed, its negative practice has been marked in ways of unrighteous holocaust and genocides worldwide. The word “eugenics” has been worldly defined and seen as the destruction of undesirable traits, in all reality people. However, the practice of altering or ridding of specific genes or minority group has changed through the evolution of time. Subcategorizing, eugenics has modernized and has advanced to the use of prenatal screenings, intentional selective breeding within agriculture, gene therapy, and possible human genetic engineering. Both articles that will be discussed, centralizes around the idea of genome sequencing. Specifically by focusing on the discovery of specific variant traits

There is much bias and confusion surrounding the topic of eugenics. Many times the reason for this is the lack of understanding of what the term means, where it states “In 1883, Sir Francis Galton, a respected British scholar, and cousin of Charles Darwin, first used the term eugenics, meaning ‘well-born.’ (Genetics Generation, 2015).” This term has evolved to encompass more than just “well-born” as can be seen in the encyclopedia. “The eleventh edition of The Encyclopedia Britannica defines eugenics as ‘the organic betterment of the race through wise application of the laws of heredity.’ (Court, 2004).” The meaning of the word eugenics, due to the way it has been used, confuses many people.

The birth of a child is supposed to be a time of joy, the uncertainty of life leads to this one point in time. Will she or he be the next president, a star athlete, a genius or just fall into the crowd as another citizen. With recent advancements in science, this uncertainty has become a thing of the past. The human being is now seen as a commodity and no more is valued in the uncertainty of individuality. The parent can now choose how they want their child to come out or develop into. Sandel’s book The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Case of Modern Eugenics is a well researched look into examples of modern eugenics and the problems that arise from it. These topics range from the ethics of cloning, athletes using performance enhancing drugs, and other practical uses in everyday life. Sandel’s argument is that there is value in human nature (even with all its flaws), and genetic engineering will forever change human nature. Destroying the very essence of what it is to be human and scarring humanity. The main features of human nature that will be altered: are responsibility, humility and solidarity.

Ethical barriers prohibiting the practice of eugenics today include principles provided for in the American College Healthcare Executive code of Ethics (Board of Governors, 2016). The principles outlined in the code help protect the patients’ interests through guiding