The Rise of a New Eugenics

Eugenics was a disturbing sociopolitical movement in the early 20th century that promoted reproduction of the "fittest" and limited reproduction of the "unfit" with "inferior" genes. It took root in academia, influenced a famous Supreme Court decision, and resulted in the forced sterilization of tens of thousands of mentally ill or mentally challenged women in this country.

Adolf Hitler's embrace of eugenics would discredit the movement, but unfortunately it didn't disappear. Today, in fact, we see the rise of a new eugenics, made possible by the rapid development of bioscience and biotechnology, especially from the mapping of the human genome.

We now have researchers with the scientific know-how working with Wall Street-backed corporations to develop the new weapon in the struggle to rid the world of people with developmental disabilities: a "non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT)" that can detect a "disability" or "genetic disorder" anywhere from the fifth to ninth week of pregnancy without amniocentesis. One of the first "disorders" targeted by NIPT technologies is Down syndrome (DS). Although this test is sometimes promoted for "women at risk" for having children...