Eugenics is the doctrine that presents a collection of purposeful practices to improve the hereditary properties of an individual and the human population overall. Introduced by Francis Galton, the English statistician, it primarily possessed two goals: to increase the number of healthy people with valuable traits and reduce those considered to be physically, mentally, or even racially inferior. However, in the contexts of climate change and overpopulation, Eugenics has acquired a new aim, namely, to decrease or fix the population to combat global warming and provide a balanced distribution of Earth’s expiring resources. This paper will give my personal view on the past and contemporary position of Eugenics and recommendations for related research and future interventions.
Although Eugenics as a study pursued good intentions, in practice, it proved to be adverse, dangerous, and flawed, especially for powerless or disadvantaged persons. In particular, the most significant foul stain on Eugenics was left by Nazi Germany, who used this science as justification for slaughtering and torturing millions of people, primarily Jews and Eastern Slavs. In the United States, the Eugenics movement gained noticeable popularity in the early 20th-century, resulting in the compelled sterilization of thousands of Americans. Herewith, the practice took a more biased tilt, and the sufferers were mostly women and Indian natives of the South, including the state of Delhi (Fendley, 2020). Thus, historically, Eugenics is frequently associated with extremes, prejudices, and biases and has not brought any positive results.
Currently, Eugenics also has substantial issues and challenges and propels fierce debates. Eugenics primarily finds support in the Zero Population Growth (ZPG) movement advocating for national birth control, abortion rights, contraceptives, and vasectomies (Fendley, 2020). However, the given movement inclined to racism draws its financial support from corporations and powerful and wealthy people. In this regard, I am firmly convinced that Eugenics is adverse practice for controlling the population and improving the quality of the global population. This practice is built on racism and total egoism and conjugated with tremendous risks of the unfair mass extermination of people, especially those without power and voice. I think that Eugenics may be applied only to severe sex offenders; in this case, it can also serve as a prophylactic measure. The scholars and governments should principally direct their effort on teaching citizens about rational consumption of available resources and developing technologies that provide efficient energy use.
Reference
Fendley, C. (2020). Eugenics is trending. That’s a problem. The Washington Post.