Eugenics
Eugenics refers to beliefs and practices aimed at producing human beings or populations with preferred or “better” characteristics. In the early twentieth century, eugenic ideas were popular in many countries and across the political spectrum, and provided scientific cover for practices and policy decisions targeting society’s most vulnerable communities. In the United States, these included the forced sterilization of tens of thousands of people considered “unfit,” stringent immigration restrictions, and public policies that encouraged “fitter families” to produce more children. In Germany, the Nazis used similar concepts to justify their extermination of Jews, people with disabilities, and other groups. A century later, many activists, bioethicists, and other scholars are concerned that a new form of eugenics may be on the horizon as market dynamics and individual choice, rather than government policies, drive decisions about our use of human genetic technologies.
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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Some surviving relatives of people involuntarily sterilized by the state of North Carolina decades ago can't...
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Methadone Mile is a stretch of road along Massachusetts Avenue that begins in the South End and stretches north to...
Human Gene Editing: A Timeline of CRISPR Cover Stories
Scientists, scholars, and social justice advocates have debated for decades about the prospect of modifying the traits we pass on to future generations. The controversy emerged well before the relevant science or technology was clearly in view, but took on new urgency in early 2015. In April of that year, researchers reported an experiment with nonviable human embryos using a new-generation genome editing tool known as CRISPR-Cas9. This research has sparked a media firestorm about engineering future children to have certain genetic factors "edited out" or "inserted in."
CRISPR gene editing is a "dual use" technology. Harnessed to help consenting patients, it may fulfill the promise of "gene therapy" for a range of diseases. But deploying CRISPR to create human babies with re-engineered genetic traits could open the door to new forms of social inequality, discrimination, and conflict. Efforts to genetically "enhance" future humans could usher us into an era of neo-eugenics – dictated not by an authoritarian regime, but by the commercial markets and consumer dynamics that favor the already privileged.
Learn more about CRISPR and human germline genetic modification:
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In the News Feed: "Inheritable Genetic Modification"
Since the debut of CRISPR, media coverage of "designer babies" has exploded, with a number of high-profile publications featuring the species-altering project on their covers and front pages. Here, we gather media highlights since early 2015, sprinkled with television appearances, public opinion polls, and editorial board statements about the prospect of gene editing for human reproduction.
View in chronological order, earliest first
A Timeline of CRISPR Cover Stories
September 1, 2016The September 2016 issue of Scientific American. "The Future: We are remaking our world and ourselves. What's next?" |
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The Human Experiment [feature] |
| #5. The First Tinkering with Human Heredity May Happen in the Infertility Clinic Stephen S. Hall |
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Links: #5. The First Tinkering with Human Heredity May Happen in the Infertility Clinic The Human Experiment
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August 10, 2016An illustrated video by Kurzgesagt is uploaded to YouTube and garners over two million views in just two days. |
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