Comparison between Old Eugenics and Biotechnology

Eugenics is the practice of modifying the human genetic components with the aim of improving human species by allowing people with desirable hereditary characteristics to mate. It was applied in the past to help reduce undesirable traits such as disabilities and diseases from society. Despite being popular in America, it was outlawed after being associated with the genocide of Nazi Germany. On the other hand, biotechnology is modern science in which parents, with scientific help, can improve the genetic constitution of their children and even choose the gender of their offspring (Faust, 281). It is therefore evident that even though science debunks eugenics, biotechnology still upholds its negative philosophies.

One significant similarity between eugenics and biotechnology is that both of them involve altering the genetic constitution of an individual. After world war 2, Hitler disabled and attempted to eliminate people who he considered the weak in the society. Even Darwin’s theory hard proved that nature favours healthy and fit individuals, eugenics promoted unethical and immoral behaviours. The practice spread to beyond Germany and soon was practised in other regions. In America, ten thousands of individuals were sterilized due to eugenics. Today, eugenics is being practised under the name in-vitro fertilization (IVF). Besides implantation, doctors perform a preimplantation genetic diagnosis to check on the health of an embryo before it is implanted into the mother’s uterus. 

Medical technology has improved the freedom of parents to determine the children’s traits in the quest for perfection. If the ultimate intention of biotechnology is to give rise to individuals with intelligent, artistic or athletic features, then humanity is destroying itself disgrace. By mating only a few features, it is highly probable that in future there will be an increase in genetic disorders. As a result biotechnology would have destroyed humanity and would be no different from the eugenic science they avoided.

Work Cited Faust, Susan M. “Baby Girl or Baby Boy-Now You Can Choose: A Look at New Biology and No Law.” Alb. LJ Sci. & Tech. 10 (1999): 281.