Eugenics - Center for Genetics and Society Eugenics refers to beliefs and practices aimed at controlling reproduction in order to “improve” the characteristics of human populations In the early 20th century, eugenic beliefs were intertwined with the developing science of genetics These ideas were popular across the political spectrum in many countries, providing scientific cover for practices and policies targeting society’s
Hipster Eugenics: Better Babies for Billionaires The techno-utopian credos known as “effective altruism” and “longtermism” have recently gained wide notice, judging by Google searches, news articles, and personal experience Far less attention has been paid to “hipster eugenics,” a term that brutally but accurately sums up the alarming trend previously known by the perhaps more anodyne “designer babies ” All are closely
What’s the difference between genetic engineering and eugenics? However, the research is still very young, and there are major ethical questions attached to editing human DNA that the emergence of CRISPR makes even more pressing: Wouldn’t editing out inheritable traits from the human population simply amount to eugenics
Eugenics today: where eugenic sterilisation continues now Eugenics was a mixture of science andEugenics was a mixture of science and social movement that aimed to improve the human race over generations Those of good stock were to produce more children, and those of bad stock were to produce fewer (or no) children The English polymath Francis Galton coined the term ‘eugenics’ in his Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development (1883), and
Future Past: Disability, Eugenics, and Brave New Worlds In the art world, how can performance and other artistic efforts reach broader publics with deeper understandings and emotional appreciation of the injustices and dangers of eugenics past, present and future? What forms of activism are already pushing back against the new eugenics and how might advocates benefit from academic partnerships?
Why Silicon Valley is bringing eugenics back as saying, “if each successive generation of smart people has fewer kids, that’s probably bad ” Musk is explicit that “smart” people need to be having more kids — he has nine living children, that we know of — but doesn’t go so far as to say that other people should be having fewer After all, he does want the population to grow One of the problems with his narrative is that
Eugenics after the Nazis? The Evolution of a Problematic Discipline Rather than ending abruptly, modern eugenics was gradually phased out and ingeniously re-invented, allowing it to survive past 1945 Optimizing Mankind: Eugenics Before the Nazis In her book Controlling Human Heredity , historian of genetics Diane Paul explains that manipulating human reproduction to optimize a population’s traits is an old idea
Maga’s era of ‘soft eugenics’: let the weak get sick, help the clever . . . Eugenics has since played out in varying, always tragic ways Attempted genocides and forced sterilization are first to mind, though the 20th century brought about the concept of soft eugenics: non-coercive methods of reducing certain conditions through individual choice and medical advice
A Short History of Eugenics: From Plato to Nick Bostrom Eugenics practices — often based on what we now describe as “ableist” beliefs — have been common throughout history It is a monster that just won’t die, no matter how many times people have tried to bury it One of the earliest discussions of eugenics comes from Plato’s “Republic ”