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8/7/2019 Fr John Fleming
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The Practice ofThe Practice of
EugenicsEugenics
TodayToday
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EugenicsEugenics an enduring part ofan enduring part of
fallen human naturefallen human natureDr John I Fleming
Adjunct Professor of Bioethics
Southern Cross Bioethics Institute
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What isWhat is eugenicseugenics??
(eu) = well (adverb of good)
(gen) = produce
Eugenic = of the production of fine(esp. human) offspring by improvementof inherited qualities.
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Principal ideas of eugenicsPrincipal ideas of eugenics
We need a strong and healthy state for
our own self-protection
Healthy progeny can be guaranteed byselective mating
Characteristics are inherited from
parents People wont like it because they may
see it as unfair, unjust
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ProblemsProblems
What is a strong or healthy person?
What of those who are physically weak butintellectually and morally strong?
What of those who are physically strong andbeautiful but intellectually and morally weak?
Reductionist account of the human being tosum total of his benefits as society deemsthem to be from time to time. Or, sum total of
their genes. Who decides? Society needs diverse types for society to
function.
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EUGENICS
1850-1945 Eugenics Favouring the fit, well-born;disfavouring the unfit
The unfit to be eliminated were: the
retards, the degenerates, thementally ill, alcoholics inheritedcurse.
That is, human beings are to be evaluated
in terms of benefits and burdens to othersas well as themselves. Principle of the netbalance of pleasure over pain.
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Francis Galton (1822 1911)
What Nature does blindly, slowly
and ruthlessly, man may do
providently, quickly and kindly.
(Francis Galton)
Galton believed that human stock
could be improved in two ways.
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Francis Galton Eugenics
Positive eugenics which aims toencourage and increase the number ofgood parents having more children,(arranged marriages, the collection of
pedigrees, social class, education,wealth) and that these superiorpeoples be offered incentives andkudos for doing so.
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Charles Davenport US)
Negative eugenics which aims to
limit the numbers of the unfit by
discouraging or coercing those
considered to be unfit from
reproducing their own kind. Before
technology was available,
sterilisations, infanticide, andmarriage prohibitions were among
the techniques employed.
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HERBERT SPENCER (C19)
He coined the term the
survival of the fittest.
GK Chesterton later
characterised it as the
survival of the nastiest
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Lord Bertrand Russell Eugenics
and the Power of the State
In his Marriage and Morals [first
published in 1929] Russell has a
whole chapter on eugenics of
which he approves.
The time is rapidly approaching
when [procreation] will have to be
deliberately controlled if [thiscontrol] is to be beneficial, [it] will
have to be by the interference of an
international State. (UN???)
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Lord Bertrand Russell
Sterilisation of Disabled WomenFeeble-minded women, as everyone
knows, are apt to have enormous
numbers of illegitimate children, all,as a rule, wholly worthless to thecommunity. These women wouldthemselves be happier if they were
sterilized, since it is not from anyphiloprogenitive impulse that theybecome pregnant. [Marriage andMorals, 130]
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Lord Russell Frankly
Eugenic Russell also appears to endorsePlatos idea that fit men breed withfit women. Vid Ibid., 135-136
Love apart from children should befree.
For procreation to be virtuous we
must have regard to the hereditywhich they transmit, that the manand the woman are likely to havedesirable children.
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GERMAN EUGENICISM
Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche, TheRelease of the Destruction of LifeDevoid of Value (1920).
Karl Binding - eminent professor oflaw specialising in jurisprudence andphilosophy
Alfred Hoche a leading Germanpsychiatrist.
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HOCHE AND BINDING
Alfred Hoche: the mentally ill are "idiots",a "financial burden" on the community,"ballast type persons of no value".
Karl Binding: killing, without consent, a"tortured sick person" is granting "deathwith dignity", a "healing intervention" andbelieved that "we are spending lots oftime, patience and care on the survival of
life devoid of value". These and other intellectuals had greatinfluence on the medical, legal, andpolitical professions
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THE NAZI EXPERIMENT
The German medical profession hadalready been radicalised long beforeHitler and the Nazis came to power.
Eugenics accepted widely in Europe,the US, and far away places likeAustralia
Winston Churchill wanted to lockaway the degenerates so that theircurse would die with them.
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WHAT THE NAZIS DID
They exterminated gypsies,
homosexuals, retards, degenerates,
the mentally ill
They exterminated the Jews in the worstracially motivated pogrom in human
history
Why? Because these human beings are
either not persons at all, or they areballast type persons of no value,
idiots to be exterminated.
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POST WORLD WAR II
When the full horror of the Naziexperiment was recognised there is aglobal determination that this must never
happen again Return to fundamental human values
If human rights are respected there is abetter prospect for peace in the world
Legal positivism went out at Nuremberg!That is, what the State says is morallyright is morally right, what is legal asmoral. Laws ofHumanity now hit centre
stage
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The End of DiscriminationThe End of Discrimination
With UN Charter and Bill ofRights enter
democracy for all
End to all forms of discrimination This was an end to all forms of killing
the innocent?
OR WAS IT?OR WAS IT?
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The more thingsThe more things
changechange
Plus a
change, plus
cest la mme
chose
The morethings change,
the more
things remainthe same
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Eugenics survives andEugenics survives and
revives!revives! Same intellectuals continued afterWW2
but more cautious for a time
From the 1960s business as usual
Margaret Sanger, contraception,abortion, eugenics (and racism) all
rolled into one extremely influential
woman and her socio-political goals Sanger key figure in the founding of
International Planned Parenthood
Federation (IPPF)
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Margaret Sanger and IPPFMargaret Sanger and IPPF
Planned Parenthood dates its
beginnings to 1916 when Sanger, her
sister, and a friend open America's first
birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New
York. (http://www.plannedparenthood.or
g/about-us/who-we-are/history-and-
successes.htm) Margaret Sanger: 14 September 1879
6 September 1966. Straddles pre-war
to post WW2
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Sanger, eugenics andSanger, eugenics and
population controlpopulation control ForSanger birth control was linked not
only to the liberation of women from the
tyranny of being nothing but a baby
incubator, it was also driven by her
eugenics.
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In the early history of the race, so-called natural law
reigned undisturbed. Under its pitiless and
unsympathetic iron rule, only the strongest, mostcourageous could live and become progenitors of the
race. The weak died early or were killed. Today,
however, civilization has brought sympathy, pity,
tenderness and other lofty and worthy sentiments,which interfere with the law of natural selection. We
are now in a state where our charities, our
compensation acts, our pensions, hospitals, and
even our drainage and sanitary equipment alltend to keep alive the sickly and the weak, who
are allowed to propagate and in turn produce a
race of degenerates.
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On blacks, immigrants and indigents:
"
... human weeds,' 'reckless breeders,spawning ... human beings who never
should have been born." Margaret Sanger,
Pivot of Civilization, referring to immigrants
and poor peopleOn sterilization & racial purification:
Sanger believed that, for the purpose of
racial "purification," couples should be
rewarded who chose sterilization. BirthControl in America, The Career of Margaret
Sanger, by David Kennedy, p. 117, quoting a
1923Sanger speech.
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Family planning linked withFamily planning linked with
eugenicseugenics On the rights of the handicapped andmentally ill, and racial minorities:
"More children from the fit, less from the unfit
-- that is the chief aim of birth control."BirthControl Review, May 1919, p. 12
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The legacy of MargaretThe legacy of Margaret
SangerSanger Contraception Abortion
Eugenics Population control
She died in 1966 but her influence liveson.
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SangerSangers Racisms Racism
[Racism: "We do not want word to go
out that we want to exterminate the
Negro population," she said, "if it ever
occurs to any of their more rebellious
members."Woman's Body, Woman's
Right: A Social History ofBirth Control
in America, by Linda Gordon] CfPlato
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HUMAN RIGHTS &HUMAN RIGHTS &
BIOETHICSBIOETHICS
Human rights apply inclusively to allmembers of the human family
Philosophers, bioethicists, medicos, nursesare all bound by the same human rights
obligations as others and have even higherduties.
We rightly celebrate the UDHR and otherdocuments as one of the great
achievements of humanity. BUT: many of the most influential
bioethicists continue to promote theeugenicists utopian dream but without the
racism of past generations.
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INFANTICIDEINFANTICIDEBUT infanticide is back on the agenda
among philosophers, bioethicists andother intellectuals. Examples include
Michael Tooley, Abortion and
Infanticide Helga Kuhse and PeterSinger, Shall
the Baby Live?
Mary Anne Warren
Recall Sanger: The most merciful
thing that a large family does to one
of its infant members is to kill it.
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PETER SINGERPETER SINGER
While it may sound shocking to some,certainly the chimpanzee is a more
morally significant being than an
anencephalic who, althoughundoubtedly biologically a member of
our species, lacks the brain and
therefore the capacities for any of
these things - for forming attachments
with other beings, even for recognising
his or her parents - and presumably
lacks all capacity for suffering as well.
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PETER SINGER & HELGAPETER SINGER & HELGA
KUHSEKUHSEThere is a limit to the burden of
dependence which any community
can carry. If we attempt to keep all
handicapped infants alive,irrespective of their future
prospects, we will have to give up
other things which we may wellregard as at least as important.
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PETER SINGERPETER SINGER Terminating the lives of birth-defective
infants"
is"
far less problematic than thelarger issue of infanticide."
When the death of a defective infant willlead to the birth of another infant with
better prospects of a happy life, the totalamount of happiness will be greater if thedefective infant is killed. The loss of ahappy life for the first infant is outweighed
by the gain of a happier life for thesecond. Therefore, if killing thehaemophiliac infant has no adverseeffect on others, it would, according tothe total view, be ri ht to kill him.
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ProfJohn Harris (UK)ProfJohn Harris (UK)
The British philosopher John Harris has
made the point that there is no ethical
difference between killing unborn
disabled children and killing those who
are born. [5th November2006]
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EugenicsEugenics
James Lachs:
The only way to treat hydrocephalic
children "humanely" is to "mercifully"
put them to death.
Mary Anne Warren:
Advocated "the kind, quick, painless,and direct method of lethal injection.
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Eugenics and euthanasiaEugenics and euthanasia
Life not worth living
PIGD (test embryo before implantation)
Prenatal genetic diagnosis (test foetus) Abortion (destroy defective unborn)
Infanticide (destroy defective newborn)
Euthanasia by neglect (no longer feedthose who have reached their use by
date)
Active euthanasia (directly kill)
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CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION
Thus being wanted, being
defective, and being a non-
person are interrelatedfactors in the moral
justification for eugenicinfanticide as it also is for
euthanasia.
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Conclusion (2)Conclusion (2)
Contemporary bioethics driven by
rejection of suffering as
irredeemable evil;excessive emphasis on
autonomy; and
excessive confidence in
goodness of doctors, nurses,
relatives etc
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Alternative perspectiveAlternative perspective
Unconditional love
Child as a gift
Child not owned
But these are the words you rarely
hear from eugenicists: love,humility, selflessness, and
gentleness. [Prof. Wesley Smith]
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Unproductive BurdensUnproductive Burdens
1. The utopian dreams of Lord FrancisBacon and the Enlightenment [C17]
2. Eugenics and Social Darwinism [C19-
20]3. Eugenics and the new genetics in the
late C20 to early C21
4. New technologies especially in thereproductive area
5. Mapping the human genome
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It is a new horizon in the history of man. Some maysmile and may feel that this is but a new version of theold dream, of the perfection of man. It is that, but it is
something more. The old dreams of the culturalperfection of man were always sharply constrained byhis inherent, inherited imperfections and limitations ...To foster his better traits and to curb his worse bycultural means alone has always been, while
clearly not impossible, in many instances mostdifficult ... We now glimpse another route - thechance to ease the internal strains and heal theinternal flaws directly, to carry on and consciouslyperfect far beyond our present vision this remarkableproduct of two billion years of evolution.
[Robert Sinsheimer, The Prospect of Designed Genetic Change,Engineering and Science, 32(1969), 8-13; reprinted in Ruth Chadwicked., Ethics, Reproduction, and Genetic Control, (London: Croom Helm,1987),
Pregnancy may be regarded as a tumor It differsPregnancy may be regarded as a tumor It differs
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Pregnancy may be regarded as a tumor. It differsPregnancy may be regarded as a tumor. It differsfrom most other tumors in two important regards.from most other tumors in two important regards.In the first place, it is normally a selfIn the first place, it is normally a self--terminatingterminatingdisease; in the second place, it is traditionallydisease; in the second place, it is traditionallyassumed to be caused by the invasion not of aassumed to be caused by the invasion not of avirus but rather of a protozoal flagellate. If for thevirus but rather of a protozoal flagellate. If for themoment we accept pregnancy as a tumor, thenmoment we accept pregnancy as a tumor, thenamniocentesis becomes a biopsy. As with otheramniocentesis becomes a biopsy. As with other
biopsy procedures there is little purpose served inbiopsy procedures there is little purpose served inundertaking this procedure unless one is willing toundertaking this procedure unless one is willing tosubscribe to the consequences which its studysubscribe to the consequences which its studyindicates. In other words, just as the frozen sectionindicates. In other words, just as the frozen sectionof a nodule in the breast connotes mastectomy ifof a nodule in the breast connotes mastectomy if
the reading of the frozen section indicates this, sothe reading of the frozen section indicates this, sodoes amniocentesis connote abortion if the tumordoes amniocentesis connote abortion if the tumorunder scrutiny proves to be malignant.under scrutiny proves to be malignant.
[De Witt Stetten, in Samuel Natelson, Antonio Scommegna, and Morton B.Epstein eds, Amniotic Fluid: Physiology, Biochemistry, and Clinical
Chemistry, (New York: Wiley, 1974), 277]
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UK EUGENIC ABORTIONSUK EUGENIC ABORTIONS
ABORTIONS AS AWHOLE
2001-20092001: 183,148
2009: 189,100
3.2% increase
1991-2009
1991: 117,5672009: 189,100
60.8% increase
EUGENIC ABORTIONS
2001-20092001: 1722
2009: 208521.1% increase
1991-2009
1991: 12232009: 2085
70.5% increase
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ConclusionConclusion
Even some pro-lifers accept the need
for eugenic abortion
The eugenic mentality bites deep intothe mentality of the culture
MAJOR PROBLEM FOR ALL PROMAJOR PROBLEM FOR ALL PRO--LIFELIFE
ORGANISATIONSORGANISATIONS
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IN THE END IN THE END
The persistence of eugenics andthe eugenic mentality remain as
threats to fundamental human
rights Applies to the old, sick and
disabled (cf Mental Capacity Act)
As well as to the young (bornand unborn), sick, and disabled
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Baroness Mary WarnockBaroness Mary Warnock
Warnock proposed the legalisation ofeuthanasia on the basis that the law
already permits the abortion of
handicapped unborn children. in an
article forCounsel, the official magazine
for barristers in England and Wales, she
writes: "It seems irrational to deny death
... to someone who, unlike the foetus, isable to make her own judgement that
her life is intolerable. [The Independent,
6 August 2002]
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And just when you thought itAnd just when you thought it
was safe to go out at night was safe to go out at night
Professor Julian Savulescu wants to screen
embryos to create a smarter society of
superior designer babies [First Things, 9
March 2011and reported Herald Sun on 13February 2011]
S wants to reduce welfare dependency,
number of school dropouts, crowded jails, and
poverty. Plus cest la meme chose!
Who is Savulescu?
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Superman!Superman!
An Australian who is Professor of
Practical ethics at the University of
Oxford.
His mentor? ProfessorPeterSinger.
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ProfessorWesley Smith reProfessorWesley Smith re
ProfessorProfessor SavulescuSavulescu
Intelligent people have caused
quite enough harm, thank you very
much. Instead of eugenically
selecting our progeny, lets instead
accept all as moral equals under the
principle of human exceptionalism,
the essential precondition touniversal human rights.
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