Sterilizing the World of ‘Dumb’ People . . . Why It Won’t Work

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Sterilizing the World of ‘Dumb’ People . . . Why It Won’t Work

“If we could just keep dumb people from having children, eventually there would be nothing but smart people and this would be a better place.” After reading this statement once and not really fully considering it, a lot of people may agree. At some point in their lives, many people may look at certain parents and their children and say, ‘those people really should not be allowed to have children.’ Usually these thoughts are just thoughts, for who are we to say who can and cannot have children. However, what if a government official proposed to sterilize everyone with less than an average IQ of 100. Would preventing ‘dumb’ people from reproducing really make this world a better place? Is the status of our society based on the intelligence of its people alone? The answer to solving the world’s problems and making this a better place to live are not that simple. There are many complex issues around defining and measuring intelligence. Even if we knew for sure that only ‘smart’ people make this place better, would sterilizing the ‘dumb’ work? How important is it to take into account other things that may affect a person’s development? Intelligence is influenced by the interaction of genetics, environment, and culture; therefore, sterilizing people would probably not keep the world free of people with an IQ of less than 100.

If the world were cleansed of ‘dumb’ people, it would not guarantee a perfect world. Having a high IQ does not mean that a person will necessarily make this world a better place. Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, had the IQ of a genius. He spent years of his life terrorizing, injuring, and killing people. On the other hand, just because a person has a low IQ does not mean they cannot make this a better place. Take, for example, the ‘Forest Gumps’ of the world or the mentally challenged. They may not be very smart on what our society subjectively calls intelligence, but they may bring joy and purpose to someone else’s life. Making this world a better place is not something left strictly up to the intelligence of the people in it. Anyone supporting the government official’s proposal is assuming that people’s intelligence alone causes the condition of the world, and there is no proof of this.

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