So, here's a copy of what I put together for the game. It's cross posted from the game schedule thread.
I hope you guys find it as interesting as I did and that it sparks good discussion. As a forum dedicated to an X-Men character, it seems that discussion of how we feel about genetics is fairly relevant. I'm pretty sure if some of those old laws were still in place, along with our current scientific understanding of the genome and genetic screening, we wouldn't have any X-Men. (If the X-Men were real I mean.)
So here you go. Have at it:
Here is a definition of Eugenics from Wikipedia:
Past eugenics programs have involved:Eugenics is a social philosophy which advocates the improvement of human hereditary traits through various forms of intervention. Throughout history, eugenics has been regarded by its various advocates as a social responsibility, an altruistic stance of a society, meant to create healthier, stronger and/or more intelligent people, to save resources, and lessen human suffering.
selective breeding
state-sponsored discrimination based on race, religion, etc...
forced sterilization of persons deemed genetically defective
killing of institutionalized populations
Modern eugenics programs currently in place focus on:
prenatal testing and screening
genetic counseling
birth control
in vitro fertilization
genetic engineering
Some interesting historical examples of Eugenics in the United States before World War II (From Wikipedia and other sources):
- In 1881 Alexander Graham Bell (inventor of the telephone) concluded that deafness was hereditary in nature and, through noting that congenitally deaf parents were more likely to produce deaf children, suggested that couples where both were deaf should not marry. Bell proposed controlling immigration for the purpose of eugenics, and warned that boarding schools for the deaf could possibly be considered as breeding places of a deaf human race.
- Beginning with Connecticut in 1896, many states enacted marriage laws with eugenic criteria, prohibiting anyone who was "epileptic, imbecile or feeble-minded" from marrying. Other state laws were written in the late 1800s and early 1900s to prohibit marriage and force sterilization of the mentally ill in order to prevent the "passing on" of mental illness to the next generation. These laws were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1927 and were not abolished until the mid-20th century.
- In 1932, Margaret Sanger (founder of Planned Parenthood of America) found eugenics a useful tool to urge the legalization of contraception. She saw birth control as a means to prevent "dysgenic" children from being born into a disadvantaged life - that the unchecked multiplication of the "unfit" to be "the greatest present menace to civilization". She suggested Congress set up a special department to study population problems and appoint a "Parliament of Population"; one of the main objectives of the "Population Congress" would be "to raise the level and increase the general intelligence of population." (It should be noted that at the time, eugenics was seen by many as scientific and progressive, the natural application of knowledge about breeding to the arena of improvement of human life and that Planned Parenthood's past and current philosophy advocates safe effective women's health care.)
- The US has operated the "Eugenics Record Office" which has tracked both desirable and undesirable genetic traits from 1910 until 1991. Between 1907 and 1963, over 64,000 individuals were forcibly sterilized under eugenic legislation in the United States!
- During the early 20th century, the United States and Canada began to receive far higher numbers of Southern and Eastern European immigrants. Influential eugenicists like Lothrop Stoddard and Harry Laughlin presented arguments they would pollute the national gene pool if their numbers went unrestricted. Their testimony lead to the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924, both Canada and the United States into passed laws creating a hierarchy of nationalities, rating them from the most desirable Anglo-Saxon and Nordic peoples to the Chinese and Japanese immigrants, who were almost completely banned from entering the country.
- Eugenic considerations also lays behind the adoption of incest laws in much of the U.S. and were used to justify many anti-miscegenation laws (laws banning interracial marriages).
Eugenics legislation after World War II (1945 - 1980s)
- The U.S. Supreme Court declared the anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional in 1967.
- Oregon repealed its forced sterilization law in 1983, with the last known forced sterilization having been done in 1978.
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, developed in response to abuses during the Second World War, was adopted by the United Nations in 1948 and affirmed, "Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. Later, the 1978 UNESCO declaration on race and racial prejudice states that the fundamental equality of all human beings is the ideal toward which ethics and science should converge.
- A few nations, notably, Canada and Sweden, maintained large-scale eugenics programs, including forced sterilization of mentally handicapped individuals, as well as other practices, until the 1970s.
Modern "Eugenics" (1980 - present):
-Endeavors such as the Human Genome Project made the effective modification of the human species seem possible again. At the same time, James D. Watson, the first director of the Human Genome Project, initiated the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications Program (ELSI) which has funded a number of studies into the implications of human genetic engineering
- Implementation of the "genius sperm bank" (1980–99) created by Robert Klark Graham, from which nearly 230 children were conceived (the best known donors were Nobel Prize winners William Shockley and J.D.Watson).
-Harris polls in 1986 and 1992 recorded majority public support for limited forms of germ-line intervention, especially to prevent "children inheriting usually fatal genetic disease".
- In Israel, Dor Yeshorim, is a genetic screening program which seeks to reduce the incidence of Tay-Sachs disease, Cystic Fibrosis, Canavan disease, Fanconi anemia, Familial Dysautonomia, Glycogen storage disease, Bloom's Syndrome, Gaucher Disease, Niemann-Pick Disease, and Mucolipidosis IV among Ashkenazi Jewish communities.
- "Reprogenetics" or conception of "designer babies". It has been argued that this non-coercive form of biological improvement will be predominantly motivated by individual competitiveness and the desire to create the best opportunities for children, rather than an urge to improve the species as a whole. Scientists have questioned whether such activities are eugenics or something else altogether.
Hopefully this isn't too long, but it was so fascinating that I wanted to include the best and most interesting of what I found.
thanks
-e