Conrad: Speaking of human rights, what about the rights of those whose genes are thought to be undesirable and who might become prohibited from reproducing? In reference to this point, one can turn to the literary anxiety in Philosophical Investigation by Philip Kerr.  Imagine if, today, people knew the genes for a particular part of the brain that could cause a certain undesirable trait, such as aggression in the novel (Kerr).  Certainly, aggression to the point of murder, as the pattern appears in the novel, is unacceptable to most everyone in society.  In Philosophical Investigation, the novel traveled through the mind of a murderer whose criminal destiny was already decided because of his genetic inheritance.  Being VMN-negative, a genetic trait that the society in the novel deemed those to have it to grow up to be criminals, left damaging psychological impacts on these purported criminals. 

            The Lombroso program, which accounted for all VMN-negatives since birth in a precise record, can be compared to the Nazi idea of “showing them your papers.”   Those with the unfortunate mutation in their genes must suffer through prejudice over something that they have no control over—a prejudice that follows them throughout their lives.

            Also imagine that those with that aggression gene are prohibited from procreating.  Society has judged them before they have even performed the acts that their genes predict they will do.  Here society goes, playing God again.  Wouldn’t it be sad if that person who is persecuted may have actually had a normal, healthy life despite their unfortunate genetic inheritance?

 

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