Eugenics is a teaching that calls people to struggle with the phenomena of degeneration of the gene pool of humanity with the help of selection with regard to people. The very first concepts about eugenics were introduced to the public in 1865's article "Heredity Talent and Character" by Francis Galton, an English psychologist, where he suggested investigating the phenomena that could improve mental abilities, physical health and talent of subsequent generations. The very term eugenics was introduced later in 1883, and Galton himself described it as a science that analyzed the factors that could improve the inherent qualities of races. With that, in many countries throughout the world there received prominence state-sponsored eugenics, that is, the officially conducted sterilization of people. Furthermore, this kind of eugenics was divided into negative and positive ones, with the first used to eradicate objectionable persons from society. For instance, in Germany the victims of eugenics were defective Jews and gypsies, the representatives of other political parties that bore a threat to the current political system, mentally ill people, as well as homosexuals. However, it can be argued that such science as eugenics appears to be morally prohibited and impure in terms of humanism and compassion towards human-beings. Indeed, none of us has the right to control the typology of humanity, even if it is filled with bad people, because none of us has the right to bring back the ruined lives of others. That is why, it is important to dwell on two main arguments that mark eugenics as an immoral science.
It is known that at the very beginning a human represents a fertilized egg that develops into a person in accordance with the genetic code that is founded in it. After his birth, a person gets into social sphere that immediately starts to have a forming influence on him (Engels, 2006, pp. 133-135). The question about whether a person is a product of education or a product of a random set of chromosomes does not have a definite answer. However, the integral problem of eugenics is represented by ethic issues, because the created medicines that prolong people's lives who are ill with dangerous diseases and disabled people, save the lives of premature babies and children with genetic mutations that, due to the achievements of modern medicine, will be able to give birth. So, humanity itself weakens its gene pool. That is, the principles of humanism that protect the right of any person to live somewhat contribute to the degeneration of humanity and disappearance of a human as a species. The largest number of controversies in society takes place during the discussion of abortion, euthanasia, experiments with fertilized eggs, and human clothing (MacKellar, 2014, pp. 65-71). With that, all these processes can be referred to the powerful methods of selection, and consequently, eugenics.
The other stumbling block is that state-governed eugenics tries to control complicated behavioral features of people, such as intelligence and talent, which are determined by a large number of genes (Kevles, 1985, pp. 273-294). The character of their inheritance is very difficult. With that, there are also many other factors that contribute to the development of intelligence and talent, such as culture, language, and level of education. All these factors are given to a child not through genes, but through communication with relatives and teachers. We should not forget that talent is not the presence of some special genes, but, as a rule, their unique combination that does not repeat itself throughout generations (Kevles, 1985, pp. 273-294). Apart from the combination of genes, talent is also determined by many reasons, such as the destiny of a person, his surrounding, education, and, of course, the moment of luck, though many can disagree with the latter point. Of course, eugenics served as one of the stimuli that encouraged the emergence of medical genetics. The tasks set by eugenics, namely, to liberate the human genotype from harmful hereditary inclinations and enrich it with valuable genes for physical and mental development, can be considered as topic nowadays. Eugenics, however, was mostly used to justify some of the most terrible crimes in the history of humanity. Now eugenics is the largely clouded past, and its tasks were transferred to the area of medical genetics. So, eugenics appears to be an immoral science because it aims at interfering with the world of genes and manipulating it in order to create the perfect type of humanity that will please the interested circles. On the contrary, the main task of eugenics, as well as medical genetics, should be set to control the manifestation of hereditary changes during the development of a fetus, and, if necessary, develop adaptive surrounding including climate, diet and medications to eliminate the risk of morbidity, disability and mortality, and guarantee a high quality of life for everyone in accordance with his genotype.
Unfortunately, the initial aim of eugenics to improve the inherent qualities of races was not reached, and the use of obligatory sterilization and euthanasia of millions of people is completely undeserved, and it is not justified by the alleged scientifically-based care of future generations. Howsoever humane methods of eugenics might be, like those to make humanity healthier, more beautiful, talented and, eventually, happier, this still bears a lot of defects (Engels, 2006, pp. 133-135). Such science as eugenics fails to fit the difficult structure of human society that is created with biological, judicial, social, psychological and religious contradictions. After all, any improvement starts with the division into good and bad, healthy or weak, talented or dull. The division, and only the selection that comes after that, culling of those who do not correspond to certain requirements of variants. At the level of human society, such selection inevitably signifies discrimination. From the point of view of clear science, eugenics contains flaws even in its premises. For instance, its main task is to change the ration of bad and useful features to the useful side. It is true that sometimes we call admit the existence of both harmful and useful types of genes. However, even with the most optimistic prediction of geneticists, for 200-300 years it will be possible to increase the number of useful genes in human population only by hundredths of a percent. That is why, state-sponsored eugenics appears to be a dystopia indeed.
References
Engels, J. V. (2006). Focus on Birth Defects Research (pp. 133-135). New York: Nova Science.
Kevles, D. J. (1985). In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity (pp. 273-294). New York: Knopf.
MacKellar, C. (2014). The Ethics of the New Eugenics (pp. 65-71). Berghahn Books.
