What is the past and present of eugenics, and what are the problems with genetic selection that threaten human dignity?

This article begins with the problem of racism in the United States, tracing the Nazi genocide of Jews and the origins of eugenics to the contemporary ethical debate over genetic selection. It highlights the historical context of eugenics and the danger that modern applications of eugenics can promote disregard for life and discrimination, and argues that preserving human dignity is more important than technological advancement.

 

Right now in the United States, many people are worried about racism driven by white supremacy, and we’re seeing incidents of people mercilessly assaulting black people. This situation is more than just an individual issue; it is rooted in social structures and historical context. Racism is the act of viewing certain races as inferior and justifying the violation of their rights, which is a challenge to equality and justice in human society. History has proven time and time again how racism has led to tragedy.
Perhaps the most iconic example of racism is the Nazi genocide of the Jews, in which the Nazis mercilessly slaughtered Jews in order to create a superior Germanic race. This atrocity was not simply the result of racial hatred, but a combination of misguided ideologies, ideas, and social climate that supported it. Behind these Nazi atrocities was a discipline called eugenics.
Eugenics, first founded in 1883 by Francis Galton in England, is the idea that humans should intervene in evolution for the purpose of improving the species. Galton argued that humans should take responsibility for their own evolution, increasing the beneficial strata of the human species and decreasing the harmful strata. To this end, all conditions and factors in the development of people with physical or mental defects became the center of study. Given the lack of scientific knowledge at the time, these ideas were accepted by many and even seen as having progressive and humanitarian goals.
As eugenics became more popular, countries like the United States and Germany implemented eugenics policies, especially in the United States, where the massive influx of immigrants in the early 20th century led to growing racial tensions and social unrest, and eugenics was used as a means to exclude or oppress certain races or classes. The Nazis in Germany pushed these ideas to even greater extremes, with tragic consequences in the form of ethnic cleansing and genocide. However, after a strong social backlash, and subsequent advances in genetics that revealed the lack of scientific basis for eugenics, eugenics gradually began to fall into decline. However, its influence has not gone away.
In the modern era, eugenics has been revived to treat genetic disorders or enhance traits in individuals. Whereas in the past, the parents who passed on certain genes were the ones making the choices, in the modern era, it’s the children who are born that are the ones making the choices. This has led to parents making voluntary decisions about abortion, gene therapy, and more. In the process, the concept of eugenics has been refined, but its inherent problems remain.
With this new popularization of eugenics, a new ethical issue emerged. This ethical dilemma is not just a matter of individual choice, but raises important questions about how society as a whole views life and human dignity. We need to think carefully about what the long-term social and ethical implications of using these technologies will be.
I am on the opposite side of this debate. The main reason for my opposition is that a fetus is a life, even though it hasn’t come into the world yet, so aborting it because it has an abnormality in its genes is tantamount to murder. Becoming a parent and creating a new life is a blessing in itself, and should be treated as such. It is never appropriate to allow a fetus to die because of human selfishness. I also believe it is unfair that parents are given the right to choose their children when the fetus has no right to choose its parents. This raises fundamental issues about human dignity and the value of life.
Furthermore, if this phenomenon is repeated, it will foster eugenics, which can lead to discrimination based on new criteria such as appearance or intelligence, which can cause serious divisions in society. It could even lead to discrimination against genetic diseases that only occur in old age, meaning that otherwise healthy people would be discriminated against simply because they carry the gene for the disease. In a society that strives to eliminate discrimination, this would create new discrimination. We need a more thorough social and ethical review to prevent these problems.
Those in favor of these technologies based on eugenics argue that they are necessary for the advancement of humanity. They argue that we can create a superior species by culling out the bad genes while keeping the good ones, which is just like natural selection as advocated by Darwin, so there is nothing wrong with it. They also argue that parents should be given the right to choose their children, because having a child with a disability is a huge financial and emotional burden for parents. While these arguments may seem reasonable on the surface, there is a very dangerous ethical trap lurking behind them.
If this right is given, then the rights of the unborn child should also be guaranteed, given that they are a living being. I also believe that the solution to the difficulties faced by parents with disabilities should not be to eliminate them, but rather to improve welfare policies and change people’s perceptions of them. This is important to protect the vulnerable and to uphold the basic ethic that all human beings should be treated with dignity.
Eugenics had the intention and goal of advancing humanity when it was first created, and it can be evaluated positively in this regard. However, many human rights issues have arisen along the way, and they are continuing in new forms to this day. While technological advancements can bring many benefits to humanity, it is of utmost importance that human dignity is maintained along the way. We will need to be ethically and socially responsible with the advancement of technology and strive to create a better future.