Abstract
Although it is often taken for granted that eugenics is odious, exactly what makes it so is far from obvious. The existence of considerable interpretative flexibility is evident in the disparate policy lessons for contemporary reproductive genetics (or “reprogenetics”) that have been derived from essentially the same set of historical facts. In this paper, I will show how different—indeed, diametrically-opposed—morals have been drawn from the history of eugenics and link these contrasting messages both to different underlying conceptions of what constitutes the central wrong of eugenics and differing degrees of enthusiasm for reprogenetic technologies. I will then argue that, for several reasons, the history of eugenics simply cannot provide the kind of direct guidance that many participants in current debates would like. Although the history does have implications for policy, the insights to be gleaned are both subtle and indirect.
Notes
Both thought that character and temperament could be read from the body, but phrenologists were concerned with conformations of the skull and physiognomists with bodily and especially facial characteristics more generally.
Lee M. Silver, a biophysicist who teaches in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University, originally coined the term “reprogenetics” to denote the convergence of genetic and reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization. It is typically employed broadly to include research and interventions involving both gametes and embryos (Knowles and Kaebnick 2007, p. ix).
In his insightful essay on sterilization in Sweden, Torbjörn Tännsjö (1998, pp. 240) notes that there are at least three quite different and indeed inconsistent objections to sterilization policy, and that depending on which one is accepted, we will condemn different agents in the past and also favor different policy recommendations for the future.
Michael Sandel (2004) also remarks on the underlying assumption that voluntary choices “are not really eugenic--at least not in the pejorative sense. To remove the coercion […] is to remove the very thing that makes eugenic policies repugnant.”
They seem to have established a beachhead of sorts at the University of Oxford, where philosopher Nick Bostrom, who co-founded the World Transhumanist Association or WTA (renamed Humanity + in 2008), directs The Future of Humanity Institute. (Bostrom is also affiliated with the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, directed by fellow reprogenetic enthusisast Julian Savulescu).
The distinction between “transhumanism” and “posthumanism” is not always clear, but typically transhumans are considered to have capacities somewhere between those of unaugmented humans and greatly enhanced posthumans.
Tom Shakespeare (2006, pp. 85–88), who is himself a disability-rights activist, provides an excellent critique of a tendency among activists to equate contemporary reproductive practices with Nazi programs.
Typical of this genre is “Margaret Sanger, Sterilization, and the Swastika” (Richmond 1997), where the link between Sanger and Nazism is made by identifying institutions for eugenical segregation as concentration camps and Sanger’s views with those of contributors to her journal, even after she had resigned as its editor.
Sanger is also featured on creationist websites, where she is identified not only with eugenics but Darwinism. For example, see Bergman 2008.
Allan Brandt (2006) provides a thoughtful analysis of both the strengths and limitations of policy-relevant history.
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Acknowledgments
A small amount of material in this essay originally appeared in “On Drawing Lessons from the History of Eugenics,” in Lori P. Knowles and Gregory E. Kaebnick, eds., Reprogenetics: Law, Policy, and Ethical Issues, copyright 2007 by The Johns Hopkins University Press, reprinted by permission of the publisher. The author would also like to thank two anonymous reviewers for very helpful comments.
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Paul, D.B. What Was Wrong with Eugenics? Conflicting Narratives and Disputed Interpretations. Sci & Educ 23, 259–271 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-012-9556-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-012-9556-3