Scientist James Watson has become embroiled in a row over his claims that black people were 'less intelligent than white people' and that this was borne out by people who have to deal with black employees. Widespread condemnation for his comments from his peers saw his speaking tour cancelled and his trip lasting as long as it took him to get off one plane and jump back onto another back to the States.
Although he did not say as much, the highly uncomfortable Eugenics debate temporarily poked its head out of the sealed cupboard it had been stuffed into.
Dr Watson was in no way actively promoting eugenics, but his use of the same language used by many throughout history to justify the control of breeding started up a short but fierce debate in the newspapers.
Probably the most famous eugenicist was Adolf Hitler but the unsettling truth is that many of the great and good were not averse to a spot of eugenic thinking themselves.
Alexander Graham Bell supported the compulsory sterilization of people deemed to be "defective variety of the human race".
George Bernard Shaw wrote that we ought to be allowed to tackle the Jewish question by admitting eugenic experiments weeding out any strains they think undesirable.
HG Wells called upon those involved in the eugenic world to 'not be squeamish’ about inflicting death on the unfit. Wells list included persons with mental disorders, bodily deformations and alcoholics.
Virginia Woolf described a walk on which she met “a long line of imbeciles”. She wrote that 'it was perfectly horrible. They should certainly be killed.'
Winston Churchill lobbied for compulsory sterilization of the mentally handicapped: "I feel that the source from which the stream of madness is fed should be cut off and sealed up before another year has passed."
I find the whole idea of eugenics abhorrent but if anyone disagrees with me, they will find themselves in some good company.
16 comments:
Very creepy.
Eventually, probably, they will be able to test for many more "defects" early in a pregnancy. People might want to abort, forex, a fetus that tests positive for schizophrenia. I don't know how I feel about that kind of thing yet.
Eugenics in, Royal Family out.
:)
Lucy, the question/fear that I have is what will happen when we do find out for sure what makes people smart. There are some people in this world that are smarter than others, I have never noticed that they are a particular race or creed, but there is no denying that they are out there and they are smarter than the rest of us. What happens when medical science can quantify the "smart gene"? What parents want to have dumb children, wouldn't everyone want to have genetic surgery in utero to have the smartest kids? What happens to the "natural born" during that time? I would love to poke my head in the sand and say that we all want to live in an egalitarian society, but like it or not, there are different levels of intelligence. I know this sounds like a Sci-Fi feature similar to Gattica, but it's bound to happen, and it is scary.
I'm shocked at the sources of some of those comments from historical figures: Wells, Shaw.
Stephen - those were the ones that bugged me the most, too.
Even more scary than what Cody said, but built upon it; what about those with a motivation to breed the less intelligent ones? They come in handy for repetitive tasks, and are expendable as pawns in a war. Especially a really long war.
Sounding a lot like The Boys from Brazil.
If only we could use eugenics to weed out reckless drivers.
"what about those with a motivation to breed the less intelligent ones?"
I'm inclined to think this is happening already. They're called nightclub bouncers.
The Alexander Graham Bell quotes struck me because i didn't realise he was such a huge advocate of eugenics, even wanting to ban deaf people from marrying incase they bred.
The idea of someone stopping another person from having children because they deem them unfit or unworthy or a liability in the gene pool is horrific.
Yeah, I would have thought good ol' Alexander would have been above that too.
Well of course Bell didn't want deaf people to have children -- they wouldn't be able to use his phone!
May as well pack up the funniest comment 2007 competition now, it just doesn't get funnier than that jefe. Excellent stuff.
"The idea of someone stopping another person from having children because they deem them unfit or unworthy or a liability in the gene pool is horrific."
If I had a time machine I'd go back 50 years and tie Barbara Bush's tubes in a New York minute.
That said, the bit about Bell is a bit surprising, as I seem to recall that he TAUGHT the deaf before inventing the phone. Or maybe that was Don Ameche.
And what about those mean bastards around at the moment who have got it in for people with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's? You know, the ones who are against stem cell research?
Just thought I'd throw that one in :)
If Doctor Watson stirred (stris?) up some debate about human genetics it could've had some positive effect.
Humans, collectively, have many negative genetic problems which need attention! Cheers.
And you're the poster boy, Daniel.
He shoots, He scores!!!!
Post a Comment