Conrad: Supporters of eugenics should consider the movie Gattaca. The lead character himself was not incapable of the same duties and responsibilities as the “valid” people in his society. In fact, who was to know?  He thrived in that environment despite the disparaging treatment of “invalids,” of which he was one.  Eugenics may also lead to too much homogenization in society where diversity and difference disappear in a rush to produce only perfect people leaving anyone with the slightest disability or deficiency at a distinct disadvantage.

 

 

 

Promethia: Yet oppositions of eugenics should also consider some compelling evidence.  It is a known fact that over one third of the mentally retarded have a mentally retarded parent (Site 1).  If a eugenic-based law was adopted that prevented all mentally retarded people from reproducing, metal retardation could be cut by one third in a single generation.  This would cause a mammoth decrease in many of society’s problems such as illiteracy, unemployment, welfare dependency, and above all, this would cause a noticeable decrease in crime.  Taxpayers would save a preposterous amount of money and the economy would strengthen, all because of one eugenic-based law that affects very few people. 

A eugenic society is the answer that we need in these times of overpopulation, exhaust of resources, and socio-political unrest.  We have been armed with the tools that scientific innovation has afforded us in being able to control the genetic heritage of our progeny, the progeny of the world. 

The facts remain clear: Intelligence is inherited.  With the advancements in technology and subsequently in our everyday lives, competition in this world not only thrives in the economic and political sense which is a creation of the human mind and a result of civilization, but also in the evolutionary sense, which we credit to nature itself. 

The success of the people in this world depends upon the competence of those who have been given the power and tools to be able to control it: humankind.  With the proliferation of less intelligent genes in the world, how will the future of humanity survive?

Civilization is key to humanity.  It is the very mechanism by which we, as humans, learn to live together and survive, especially with the large population spread in which most of the people on this earth live.

At the present time, we are evolving to become less intelligent with each new generation.  Those with the least favorable inheritance for intelligence tend to have more children.  What does this mean for the future of the world?  The more unintelligent people on this earth, the less viable humanity as a whole will be. 

And, finally, should we not deal with this problem in our society now, if we do not take advantage of the knowledge we have gained and the tools we have created to do it, then I mourn for the future of the world.  Just as the evidence in The Bell Curve shows, lower intelligent life on earth can have a damaging effect on society, an effect to which the present methods that we employ are no longer efficient. 

 

 

 

Conrad: Clearly, those consequences cannot be anticipated without fear or horror in the notion that society's social ills have a genetic basis in the humans living today.  The very idea sends the message that no human life is worth living unless it is favorable to certain human-created standards.

Intelligence, or the potential for intelligence, may indeed have genetic bases.  But society must not disregard the multitude of other kinds of intelligence that people throughout the centuries have contributed to humankind.  Music, art, literature, science, any body of knowledge can be just as important as (if not, in some cases, more important than) the intelligence that many pro-eugenics followers advocate to solely exist.

Innate intelligence may indeed have been shown to exist in thriving societies, but that is not to say that those with "less inherited intelligence" cannot learn or use their other genetically granted abilities to thrive in their own societies.

In addition, society cannot control, as human beings, the fate of the lands into which many unfortunate populations have been born.  People in "less civilized" nations seek refuge in more civilized areas for opportunity.  It should not be forgotten that many of America's ancestors, of any ethnicity, came to America as strangers, seeking refuge from oppression.  Why were those people, who may very well have as their progeny supporters of eugenics, not able to survive in their environments, supposedly armed with genetic qualities of such intelligence?

Evolution has nothing to do with the increasing numbers in populations where inherited intelligence is particularly low.  Those conditions to which people owe such growth and subsequent socio-economic problems is a societal problem.  Here, people try to tie genetically inherited intelligence to the social problems that the establishments of civilization have created.

Finally, attackers of eugenics refuse to believe that lower IQ s mean more social problems.  Where did Herrnstein and Murray find the people whose IQ s were low--or high for that matter?  What are IQ tests, anyway?  Human creations, yet again.  How can one judge the intelligence of a society and tie that to socio-economic problems based on the standards created by those who had been afforded opportunities for higher education and experience? 

Creating a society where eugenic methods rule is a mere criticism of the human being.  Each person has been given gifts and a purpose, some more relatively magnanimous to our culture than others, but no more important.  Each person owes it to himself to fight this battle against human dignity and human creation.  Society does not hold the fates of descendants and the world itself in its hands more than it actually has the ability to hold.  Individuals must not play God in such challenging times of political and social unrest.  They must encourage human life to thrive on human abilities, doing what they must in the capacity that they have been given.

 

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