I didn't know anyone had ever said that it was a pseudoscience.
The whole science of genetics is tricky business though, both ethically and scientifically. It's not always 100% clear which traits can be offset or dominated by which traits which would make selective breeding for humans a less-than-exact technique if ever tried or implemented. Ethically, many people believe that selecting who should breed with whom to produce the most desirable traits would take away the element of individuality that makes us (essentially) human (which is a tricky argument because with selective breeding, who we are as people would be, in large part, decided by someone who feels that they have the right to make that decision and on the other hand, no matter what, we get no say in our genetic structure).
It is definitely NOT a pseudoscience by any means. Much of the field is very well researched and if there is an element of pseudoscience, it lies with the people who use eugenics to justify their own feelings against any particular race, creed or culture. I'm not getting into that.
Personally, while I believe in the human's natural ability to select mates who will produce genetically well and healthy offspring, I do believe people should be more consciously selective about who they have children with. Not just for the purposes of healthy offspring but to ensure that their offspring can enjoy the benefit of a stable and decent home. As far as creating the "best human being possible", what constitutes the "best" is dependent on the culture and the times. We could possibly be setting ourselves up for a race of people whose traits will be completely unappreciated later on in the future.
Is it normal to wonder if eugenics really is a pseudoscience?
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I didn't know anyone had ever said that it was a pseudoscience.
The whole science of genetics is tricky business though, both ethically and scientifically. It's not always 100% clear which traits can be offset or dominated by which traits which would make selective breeding for humans a less-than-exact technique if ever tried or implemented. Ethically, many people believe that selecting who should breed with whom to produce the most desirable traits would take away the element of individuality that makes us (essentially) human (which is a tricky argument because with selective breeding, who we are as people would be, in large part, decided by someone who feels that they have the right to make that decision and on the other hand, no matter what, we get no say in our genetic structure).
It is definitely NOT a pseudoscience by any means. Much of the field is very well researched and if there is an element of pseudoscience, it lies with the people who use eugenics to justify their own feelings against any particular race, creed or culture. I'm not getting into that.
Personally, while I believe in the human's natural ability to select mates who will produce genetically well and healthy offspring, I do believe people should be more consciously selective about who they have children with. Not just for the purposes of healthy offspring but to ensure that their offspring can enjoy the benefit of a stable and decent home. As far as creating the "best human being possible", what constitutes the "best" is dependent on the culture and the times. We could possibly be setting ourselves up for a race of people whose traits will be completely unappreciated later on in the future.