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Eugenics: The Pseudo-Science of Racial Purification

Updated on June 24, 2015

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Eugenics is a word derived from the Greek, meaning, well born. It is a controversial idea that presaged the more detailed knowledge that we have today concerning DNA, nature, nurture and epigentics. Eugenics was used as a tool to forward the idea of human breeding based on selecting traits that are inherited and passed on to future generations. The goal was to improve and perfect the human animal, specifically among a number of lines, such as strength and mental prowess. The idea is founded on Gregor Mendel's experiments with sweet peas and later animal breeding by others. However, animal breeding is far older, practised long before there was an established science. Farmers and husbandry practitioners have been selecting for certain traits in all animals for thousands of years. In the case of dogs, this goes deep into prehistory. By and large it was a hands on approach, relying on trial and error, selecting young that had desirable traits. Eugenics is a fairly recent idea that seems to have developed in lock step with the industrial revolution and the need to force adapt people to emerging new realities.

Eugenics in the political sphere evolved as a social philosophy promoting the idea that people with desirable characteristics, should be encouraged to breed as opposed to those with undesirable traits, who would face possible sterilization, even euthanasia. These were identified as positive and negative eugenics respectively. Eugenics may seem laughable today, but in some quarters, it is rearing its influence again and is still in practice in some places. Historically, eugenics was particularly favoured in the Britain, US, Canada and then Nazi Germany. The idea in the modern era, emerged in Britain, largely from the influence of Sir Francis Galton in 1883, a relation of Charles Darwin. But eugenics was practised mostly in North America beginning in the late 19th century and continuing into the early 21st century. Typically, the targets of negative eugenics were the handicapped (mental and physical), alcoholics, drug abusers, criminals, those who scored low on IQ tests, feeble minded like idiots, morons and imbeciles, those identified as deviants, such as homosexuals, promiscuous women and disfavoured minority groups like Indigenous people, blacks, Hispanics, Jews and gypsies. Eugenics has most often been a tool of abuse by ruling political elites seeking to eliminate a target group. Eugenics was justified as a explanation as to why power and wealth accrues to certain people over many generations and the as the why poverty also concentrates and spreads through generations. This is where the pseudo-science enters the picture. By many others, the use of eugenics in this manner is viewed as an abuse of human rights to life and reproduction. We will argue, from selective breeding in history to demonstrate that practical eugenics is a formula for disaster; another aspect making this a pseudo-science.

Eugenics has less to do with improving the human animal by selective breeding and more to do with the practice of political targeting of opposition and the undesired in particular. Eugenics denies the idea of people being born equal in the sight of God or in a democracy, and relies on the idea that perfection lies in the practice of genetic fitness, that should be promoted through selective breeding over many generations. Policies for breeding and non breeding were often forced, such as forced abortions, forced carrying a baby, even by rape, to term, racial segregation as some races were considered superior to others, compulsory sterilization and genocide. Those defined as genetically fit on the other hand, were encouraged to breed widely. By example, a defined genetically fit man in Nazi Germany was encouraged to take as many healthy mates as possible and maximize impregnation of many genetically fit women as often as physically possible to multiply fit genes. This meant, the women had to become pregnant again on a schedule right after giving birth. Hundreds of thousands willingly participated in the vast experiment. Many of these children are still alive and many also produced children and grandchildren in more traditional ways after the Nazi regime collapsed under the crush of the Red army from the USSR.

Modern Genetics had its Start with the Observations of a Monk

Simple heredity explains how differences can emerge in a population. This is the foundation for modern genetics and also an augment used in eugenics.

Eugenics began with the idea of inherited traits as propounded by Gregor Mendel from his experiments with peas to define generational inherited traits, to the modern interpretation of characteristics passed on through the DNA and the idea that improving the race can be achieved by genetically modifying human beings. This does not consider the reality of spontaneous mutation of DNA from many sources, particularly, radiological, chemical and environmental. This is a wild card, first discovered by Thomas Hunt Morgan, who proved by experiment the idea of genetic mutation outside of inheritance in fruit flies. Thus we have the influence of epigentics which is the study of how the environment can act as an external driver in genetic modification. Thus eugenics by itself as defined by Morgan, is not completely scientifically accurate. According to him, traits such as intelligence and criminal tendencies, came from outside; epigenetic sources and were not inherited. These traits are also often subjective as defined by the power elite, who are often in that position owing to criminal activity. Nevertheless, the work of Morgan wound up being absorbed by modern eugenics.

Part of eugenics has morphed into trans-humanism, the concept that some are more worthy of long life than the many, who are viewed as slaves, useless eaters, unworthy of life, and recently, an organ transplant crop. Much of modern eugenics is consumer based and driven and with the advent of genetic engineering, the possibilities now emerge with possible catastrophic results. Trans-humanism means that those with the means, can employ all means, justified and otherwise, to improve and extend their lives. This includes the yet to emerge, epigenetic science to artificially alter ones own genetic code. It also includes incorporating machines and electronics into human beings and some progress has been made here. It still includes eugenics as a guide to ostensibly strengthening the human genome by selective breeding for desirable traits; but desirable traits can be a highly subjective affair, changing with the whim of fashion. The movie, “Blade Runner” deals with so-called replicants, who were clones with genetically shortened life spans to lessen the threat of rebellion against harsh off world slave conditions. Though we have not yet engineered human clones by most accounts, the fact that we have done so with other complex species tells us that it is entirely possible. Clones can be genetically modified to produce trans-genetic hybrids, with sometimes weird traits, such as nanny goats that contain spider silk protein in their milk. The field is wide open as to what will come next.

It is known from observation that a reduction in biodiversity in the genome is a formula for disaster, leading to the possible extinction of a species as soon as ten generations of inbreeding. Notable in this type of phenomenon, is the inbreeding within the European royals, particularly among those of Europe and Russia. The practice of keeping wealth and power in the family became the norm among competing royals who wanted to stabilize their power and wealth over large land holdings over many generations. This was achieved by marrying and reproducing only within the extended family. Eventually, this lead to the emergence of haemophilia in the royal family starting with queen Victoria and emerging with devastating results in Czarist Russia. From there and also in Victorian Britain, the disease was transmitted to the general population and it is now a world wide disease, affecting millions. The Rothschild extended family who hold similar controls about marrying strictly in the family, faces the same kind of future where a genetic disease will likely emerge withing ten generations. The Rothschild restriction commenced in the early 19th century with few violations. The generations of the Rothschilds is about to reach the tipping point of the tenth generation. From there, given the tendency of outside sex and illegitimate births, this will also spread to the world at large, just as for haemophilia. Given the 10,706 number of known genetic diseases and the ten generation factor from inbreeding, we can establish that conditions that serve as an epigenetic driver, has been plaguing humanity for approximately 300,000 years. We see problems of inbreeding in animal breeding were a desirable designer traits are deliberately pursued by inbreeding. This has lead to a host of genetic diseases in dogs and cats in particular that has led to tremendous suffering among the animals and expenses by pet owners who treat an untreatable condition. The best answer for some of these horrific degenerative genetic diseases is euthanasia. Much of these horrors resulted in eugenic practices to improve the strain and resulted in disaster. The problem of euthanasia has already emerged in dealing with “undesirable” humans who were subjected to all kinds of horrors based on subjective opinion and conjecture.

Eugenics as the Basis of Social Darwinism

Modern eugenics has a major supporter, Richard Dawkins, the author of “The Selfish Gene” and “The God Delusion” among other titles. All kinds of ideas have emerged to drive modern eugenics. These include artificial insemination, egg donation, detecting genetic disorders justifying abortion of defective foetuses, designer children, embryo selection, genetic engineering/modification, gene therapy and cloning.

We do not ultimately know everything about genetics and are still making discoveries that change our whole paradigm on the subject. For instance, epigenetics is a rather recent discovery that we are still coming to grips with on its implications as a driver of evolution. Active eugenics is thus a danger to the human race in our current stage of understanding. We do not know what we have lost by destroying millions of innocent people. Suppose for instance, that Hitler had achieved the final solution in regard to the Jews. We would have not only lost a culture, but a genetic ability to be immune from tuberculosis. During the long periods of being ghettoized in the past, an unknown Jew developed a natural resistance to tuberculosis that plagued overcrowded conditions. This resistance spread throughout some of the Jewish community and this trait still exists today. Those families with the trait are immune to tuberculosis and this trait can be a benefit to all of humanity in an era where anti-biotics are failing to treat the super-bug form of the disease. Thus breeding with Jews with this trait can pass it on to the rest of humanity. Eugenics if taken to its ultimate stage by Hitler, would have eliminated this immunity from the human race altogether, all based on subjective hatred of an entire group of humanity.

If eugenics is about improving humanity, it is faced with a formidable challenge. Modern humanity with the aid of technology, civilization and medicine has emerged as the most diseased species on the planet. We talk of filthy rats and other vermin, but need to take a hard look in the mirror. Not even considering the plethora of pathogens that can enter us as part of nature, we have since learned that we live with some 10,706 specifically known genetic disease conditions. Some of these diseases are bizarre. A lot of ideas have emerged concerning this, but perhaps the one thing we have overlooked is the fact that civilization permits many potentially diseased individuals to live and reproduced instead of being culled like animals in the wild that are as a rule, extremely healthy as a species. Genetic deformities are rare in the wild unless humanity pollutes the environment that causes a local outburst. Deformed animals have little chance to succeed in life and the health of the various species is maintained by predation that takes out the ones that are unhealthy. This is why animal species tend to remain healthy in nature, while humans get sick in civilization over extended times. It may even be a contributing factor in the collapse of civilizations; where they collectively get too sick! Human beings have attempted to mimic the natural culling, but all too often, the wrong individuals are targeted, eliminating millions of healthy people, principally through war. No farmer will plant the seed of the weakest plant. However, war ensures that those not healthy enough to engage in combat, survive to perpetuate the species, while the healthy are killed off or maimed. Perhaps, given our penchant for war through history, this is behind the remarkable illness of our entire species. If eugenics is about improving the race, it has failed miserably and apparently is headed down blind allies and in the wrong direction. This alone makes eugenics a pseudo-science in which we are to have faith as the religious adherent has faith in creed and dogma.

Eugenics as practised today is a pseudo-science and is a dangerous idea that could spell doom to the human race. If we are to purge humanity of all known genetic defects, it would either take at least 300,000 years to sort it all out including the extreme complexity of the problem involved, or acknowledge, based on the ideas of eugenics and species health, almost all of humanity must be exterminated to prevent the spreading of the 10,706 known conditions. This does not address the still unknown conditions! Clearly, we have to look at alternatives in the immediate term instead of persecuting, torturing and killing the ill as has been the norm til now. There is nothing wrong with attempting to cure illness and maladies that afflict almost all of us, but our understanding of the complexity of life is still rather in its infancy and we need to learn very much more than what we know now. That we are still making discoveries implies that the fount of knowledge has not been mined out. In addition, medicine for profit for the few, is hampering productive research, particularly of natural cures, upon which most of our pharmacy depends anyway, is preventing advances that could ameliorate the suffering of many. We definitely need to be more objective and pursuing false ideas in a faith like manner leads to nothing but trouble. Eugenics has been one of these blind alleys as practised up to now. Though there may be some useful parts to the idea, it must be handled with extreme caution. Science should be about objectivity, which all to often, the all too human practitioners, lean to interest incentives as the guide to science, which often falsifies what is discovered. Science in such conditions is then promoted in a belief and faith like response, all to often in something that is a lie.


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