"Eugenics" in the popular imagination means Nazis executing people with disabilities. Embryo selection is "eugenics" in a strict dictionary definition sense, but not "eugenics" as most people understand it.
Still not believing it this time, and before we start on the "It's only because of the Nazis that eugenics has a bad name" route, read Francis Galton 'the Father of Eugenics' and others of the various Eugenics Societies which sprang up in the early 20th century. While Galton was concerned most of all with getting the 'best' specimens to marry and have kids, others were much more enthused about all the ways they would stop the 'inferiors' from breeding.
It wasn't the Nazi Party brought out posters like this - an uncomfortable reality which the Germans pointed out as support for their efforts.
And it always, always begins with "we just want to make sure that healthy babies are born, who could possibly object to doing away with hereditary diseases?"
Apart from that, this is just the usual "there is no such thing as the slippery slope" contention.
Then five years later it's "But how were we to know?"
The general path of this sort of thing is:
(1) We promise, cross our hearts and hope to die, that polygenic screening will not be used except to prevent hereditary diseases
(2) Okay, 'hereditary disease' has been defined in too limited a sense, let's expand it to cover these heart-string tugging cases
(3) Wouldn't you want to give your children the gift of a better life? If they were polygenically selected to be smarter/taller/prettier/extrovert/athletic, they would have such a better life, studies have shown it, it's Science and you can't argue with Science
(4) There are still people out there who are hold-outs about their dysgenic heritage. They will be encouraged by the state to consider polygenic selection of any offspring they intend to have
(5) If none of your embryos reaches the standards required for continuation of the process of pregnancy, you will be sterilised for the good of society
magic9mushroom
If you're going to downvote me, and nobody's already voiced your objection, please reply and tell me
FarNearEverywhere 10mo ago
Honestly, that's like the third-worst scenario. The worse ones are inescapable dystopia and selection for negative-sum traits like height/exploitativity causing catabolic collapse (the latter is what you'd get accidentally from naïve selection on income, to be clear, and procreative beneficence also endorses deliberately doing it).
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Notes -
"This is not at all the same thing as eugenics! Only cranks could possibly oppose it!"
Then proceeds to give list of "and this is now accepted as normal and only cranks oppose it" eugenics examples.
Yeah, sure I believe you that this time is gonna be different.
"Eugenics" in the popular imagination means Nazis executing people with disabilities. Embryo selection is "eugenics" in a strict dictionary definition sense, but not "eugenics" as most people understand it.
"Our eugenics are different!"
Still not believing it this time, and before we start on the "It's only because of the Nazis that eugenics has a bad name" route, read Francis Galton 'the Father of Eugenics' and others of the various Eugenics Societies which sprang up in the early 20th century. While Galton was concerned most of all with getting the 'best' specimens to marry and have kids, others were much more enthused about all the ways they would stop the 'inferiors' from breeding.
It wasn't the Nazi Party brought out posters like this - an uncomfortable reality which the Germans pointed out as support for their efforts.
And it always, always begins with "we just want to make sure that healthy babies are born, who could possibly object to doing away with hereditary diseases?"
Snidely implying that Ambiguous Bad Thing Definitely Has to Happen Again for no reason is not a good argument.
I take exception to the term "snidely".
Apart from that, this is just the usual "there is no such thing as the slippery slope" contention.
Then five years later it's "But how were we to know?"
The general path of this sort of thing is:
(1) We promise, cross our hearts and hope to die, that polygenic screening will not be used except to prevent hereditary diseases
(2) Okay, 'hereditary disease' has been defined in too limited a sense, let's expand it to cover these heart-string tugging cases
(3) Wouldn't you want to give your children the gift of a better life? If they were polygenically selected to be smarter/taller/prettier/extrovert/athletic, they would have such a better life, studies have shown it, it's Science and you can't argue with Science
(4) There are still people out there who are hold-outs about their dysgenic heritage. They will be encouraged by the state to consider polygenic selection of any offspring they intend to have
(5) If none of your embryos reaches the standards required for continuation of the process of pregnancy, you will be sterilised for the good of society
Honestly, that's like the third-worst scenario. The worse ones are inescapable dystopia and selection for negative-sum traits like height/exploitativity causing catabolic collapse (the latter is what you'd get accidentally from naïve selection on income, to be clear, and procreative beneficence also endorses deliberately doing it).
Beware of mean chickens.
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