Eugenics and Its Unforeseen Consequences
I think that the main reason ideas of eugenics are frowned upon is, like Jordan said in his post, selective breeding is unnatural. Selective breeding, only allowing certain individuals in a population to mate, by definition is not natural selection and therefore is not a natural process. (Natural selection is when individuals which are best adapted to their environment are the ones who make the largest genetic contribution to the next generation because they are most likely to reproduce.) In my opinion, the biggest controversy in eugenics is "who gets to decide what traits should be selected for and what traits should be favored?" When humans selectively breed someone is going to have to decide which traits are the most valued. This again introduces the controversy between god and science. Is it ok for humans to decide the evolution of the species. This seems to be an extension of man playing “the creator.” Selecting for certain traits could have unforeseen consequences. Through selective breeding, humans will become very specialized thus decreasing the diversity within the population. Should a small change in the environment occur, it could wipe out the entire species if the traits we have selected for happen to be detrimental in the changed environment. I think that not only is it unethical for people to value certain people more than others due to certain characteristics, it may actually be detrimental to the human race.
posted by Ami at 7:58 PM
2 Comments:
I think you make a good point about selective breeding causing our world to become less diverse. Yes, a minor change in the environment may ultimately wipe out the majority of humanity, and when we thought we were becoming superior and stronger to resist environmental factors, we were actually becoming more vulnerable. I think the parallel to this idea in modern science is the use of antibiotics. Everytime we use an antibiotic, bacteria get the chance to become resistant to it and thus become a larger threat for us. Will there be a time when we ultimately cannot use antibiotics anymore because bacteria have evolved in such a manner?
Amit, you definitely bring up something very important. Diversity in organisms is a GOOD thing. There are several ways that humans have evolved naturally to increase diversity, from random assortment of genes in progeny to crossing over of genetic material during cell division. Diversity is a good thing. If we were to map the evolution of organisms, it would branch out. If there were ever a point where two organisms converged, we would be losing the natural diversity of the environment. Any favorable process increases the entropy (disorder) in the world. Thus, by selective breeding, we would be losing variety and causing the convergence of the human race into a single creature.
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