The term eugenics refers to a set of principles and beliefs that aim to improve the genetic quality of the human population. Early efforts in eugenics began in the 19th century in Europe. The eugenics movement advocated for the removal of undesirable traits from the human population by selective breeding and the forced sterilisation or restraining of disabled or “insane” individuals from having children. The definition of insane in the 19th and 20th centuries has changed drastically; many who would have been considered insane then would now be classified as depressed or bipolar. The National Human Genome and Research Institute describes eugenics as an inaccurate scientific theory. The idea that humans can be “improved” through selective breeding is viewed by much of the scientific community as inaccurate.
INFLUENCING THE WORST GENOCIDE IN HISTORY
The most infamous case of eugenics being used on a mass, government-endorsed scale was that of the Nazis in Germany. The Nazi ideology was centred on the belief that Germans, or “Aryans,” were the master race and at the pinnacle of human life. Jews, Roma (Gipsies), communists, Poles, homosexuals, and disabled people were all counted as fundamentally inferior. It is estimated by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum that some 250,000 persons were killed by the Germans in their official Euthanasia Program. An additional 400,000 were also forcefully sterilised (SOURCE??). These disabled and mentally challenged people were seen as a public burden and unworthy of life.
Germany’s belief in the inferiority of the aforementioned groups led to the mass murder of 6 million Jews and millions of others. The eugenics-inspired racial ideology of the Nazi movement, led by Adolf Hitler, was responsible for the deadliest genocide in human history. All this is in direct contradiction to the Word of God: we are all viewed as equal and deserving of worth in the eyes of God. Galatians 3:28 – “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
CATEGORISING AND DIVIDING
The pseudo-scientific practice of eugenics also sought to categorise humans in “races.” The Jews were viewed by eugenicists as a race with unique and unchangeable characteristics, which caused the Nazis to view Jews as a race with “Jewish blood.” They categorised races as either superior or inferior to one another. However, there are no differences biologically or otherwise between Jews, Europeans, Africans, or indeed, any other race.
On the other side of the Atlantic, in the United States, eugenics was alive and well, and Black people were viewed as a fundamentally inferior race. They were categorised by eugenicists as lazy, unintelligent, and morally depleted. The irony is that the movement that advocated for forced sterilisations, segregation, categorising and dividing human beings, and influencing genocides described Black people as “morally inferior.” American eugenicists were hard at work playing God and declaring individuals morally bankrupt or intellectually inferior, which led to the sterilisation of 60,000 Americans by the 1970s. (SOURCE??).
RE-PACKAGED
The practice of eugenics has been shunned in modern science and has become a dark part of scientific history in the United States. However, it survives in subtle ways, one of which is the abortion of presumably disabled children. In Belgium and Denmark, following a Down Syndrome diagnosis, abortion rates surpass 90%. Many parents are left feeling hopeless after a disability diagnosis in utero. Even the European Parliament says, “Unfortunately this problem has become a worldwide phenomenon.” The notion that children with disabilities are inferior or worth less than normally-abled children persists today.
I am not advocating for parents to be raising children they cannot care for. However, adoption and many other alternatives are available. Killing a child based on his or her projected disability is wrong and blatantly discriminatory. Additionally, Down syndrome screening is not perfect; there can be false positives and false negatives. So, can you imagine how many babies have been aborted due to a misdiagnosis?
Eugenics is an evil and morally questionable practice that has been condemned by the scientific community. However, it is making a comeback in different disguises: in the form of racists who reject intermarriage amongst races because they feel one race is superior to another. It is also reappearing in fertility labs where genetics for a child can be selected before conception, essentially creating “designer” babies.
This is a dangerous road for humanity to trod, where children are predetermined in labs, and “negative traits” are eliminated.
We must continue to assert the Biblical and moral truth that all human beings are created equal and deserving of life. Genesis 1:27 states, “So God created mankind in his own image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
Note: You may want to watch the 1997 movie Gattaca, which is about a future society where eugenics is the norm.
Ifeoluwa Alonge is 15 years old and has been writing with Freedom Come Rain since he was age 11.
