Eugenics Past And Future Summary

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Eugenics is a set of practices that aim to improve the genetic qualities of the human race, through the encouragement for reproduction in groups of people with desirable genetic traits, the sterilization of groups with undesirable traits, or the genetic manipulation of the human genome to create individuals with better qualities. The eugenic movement has played key roles in defining some important moments in our history, such as the rising of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nazi Party) and World War II. As journalist Ross Douthat declares, Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazis, was an advocate for the sterilization of "defectives", namely the mentally ill, homosexuals, blind, deaf, poor, certain racial groups and promiscuous women, …show more content…

According to Douthat, “Having left behind pseudoscientific racial theories, it’s easy for us to look back and pass judgment on yesterday’s eugenicists. It’s harder to acknowledge what we have in common with them.” Douthat points out that eugenic sentiments are still alive, pointing as evidence of this the fact that approximately 90 percent of couples that carry out a fetal examination for Down Syndrome opt for abortion if the results came back positive …show more content…

Taking an in-depth look at a study performed by researchers at King’s College London with 11000 twins, both identical and non-identical, Van Court made her point that genetics plays an important part in determining the level of intelligence a person shows. Van Court also states that in recent studies our species has been shown to tend towards diminishing intelligence, which she attributes to dysgenic fertility, that is, a cycle where reproduction between people with low levels of intelligence is greater, and thereby increasingly generating less intelligent individuals. Van Court states that “The main reason for dysgenic fertility is that intelligent women use birth control more successfully than unintelligent women do. This seems to be the case regardless of which method is used. Women of high, average, and low-IQ all want, on average, the same number of children, but low-IQ women have far more accidental pregnancies, and thus more children (Van

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