Conrad: The challenging view of eugenics has a basis that revolves around fundamental principles of democracy and morality. As with the more touted controversy of abortion, eugenics has pushed a number of religious and ethics groups to rally against it, even in the wake of its practice.  For most moralists, eugenics is a sign of the deteriorating society that denounces human pride and replaces it with vain assumptions of human supremacy.  Society, according to this objecting view of eugenics, unfairly assumes the superiority of certain human traits over others.  How, these moralists ask, should certain traits be gauged more favorable than others?  This kind of judgment could one day proclaim blue eyes better than brown, blonde hair better than brunette.  Sound familiar?  Hitler promoted this philosophy only six decades ago.  This philosophy, many fear, may once again emerge, especially with the rising advancements of genetic technology today.

 

 

Promethia: Yet many contend that humanity can benefit from the perpetuation of only the most desirable of traits, for example intelligence. Future Generations is a website specifically designed to promote eugenics. It contains documents written by many scholars including Charles Murray, a well-know scientific mind.  They focus on five main points in their mission statement. The first point is that human intelligence is largely hereditary.  Scientific evidence shows that adopted children’s IQs resemble their biological parents' IQs more similarly than that of the parents who adopted them.  Also, identical twins separated at birth and raised apart are surprisingly alike in IQ.  Heredity counts a great deal in life.  As Future Generations states very clearly, “The majority of researchers in the field of intelligence testing believe heredity is more important than environment in explaining variations in IQ scores among individuals” (Vancourt).

 

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