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Personally I don't think anybody has the right to decide who others can and can't have sex with, what traits are and aren't to be passed on. On the other hand, it WOULD be a good thing if certain genetic diseases were eliminated. is it normal to wonder about eugenics?
This is kind of along the same lines of my future career. I plan on being a genetic engineer and have given a little thought to eugenics, because the two fields overlap slightly when it comes to designer babies.
I agree, no one has the right to tell people who and who not to bang; however, there are some extremely unfortunate genetic conditions out there that could be reduced in the population. Using force and violating human rights is not an option though.
But you could use techniques to sequence a baby's genome, isolate mutations, fix them, and have a normal baby. That way, instead of a child being born with a debilitating genetic disorder, they will be essentially normal, so it doesn't matter who the parents are. Designer babies and eugenics almost have the same goal. Eugenics basic idea, building a "better" human race, is a bad way of saying helping people that would have been otherwise been born with crippling genetic diseases. At least that's my take.
Genetic engineering is a tool, like a hammer. You can use a hammer to be helpful and build structures, or you kill someone with it if you wanted to. Every tool has the power to be beneficial or destructive, it all depends on how you use it, and same with ideas such as eugenics.
Just wondering, what is making you think of eugenics? Sorry this is long and probably mostly rambling. I get overly enthusiastic about genetics.
What is making me think of eugenics? Well, I guess it's because eugenics seems to be a technique that can have a truly lasting effect on humanity.
It also kinda annoys me that it's almost always lumped in with Nazism and wanting to create a master race. There is a big distinction between wanting to promote certain traits and wanting to eradicate certain genetic conditions.
I'm all for preemptively eliminating undesirable traits. I don't see anything wrong with it. "Society" already collectively rejects some traits like short height or baldness yet wants that these individuals get born only to be bullied, mocked, chastised and ostracised. Or maybe they want us around so they can put us down and feel better about themselves?
"I'm all for preemptively eliminating undesirable traits."
How exactly? You (nor anybody else) has the right to decide who others can and can't have sex with, right?
Genetic testing of foetuses for one. Babies that present too many birth defects should be put down too. It shouldn't really be a government that coerces people but most people have an innate desire to have good quality offspring themselves hence the harsh mate selection competition so I'm sure a lot of people would decide this on their own.
There's this very good movie, a personal favorite of mines, called "Gattaca" that I think you might enjoy.
I have a biology text book from the 1920's with a chapter dedicated to eugenics. Seems like the subject was dropped after hitler though.