Concept in Definition ABC

The word eugenics derives from the Greek, itself the term means a best way to be bornIn practice, eugenics seeks the improvement or improvement of the human being through the control of factors such as reproduction.

Although the improvement of the species is something that has been sought since ancient times, its adoption as a theory arises from the formulation of the Theory of Evolution of Darwin, which made it possible to raise awareness about the hereditary factor of both diseases and traits such as intelligence, talent, skills and even personality, leading to think that one way to improve the human race was by exercising birth control, affecting the reproductive capacity of subjects with traits considered "undesirable".

Eugenics is as old as our species

The search for the improvement of the human species dates back to ancient times, when the Greeks let children who were born with anomalies die to prevent them from reproducing. The Bible also shows verses in which reference is made to the prohibition of intermarriage with families with disabilities for several generations.

Later political movements such as the Nazism brought eugenics to its fullest expression by exterminate ethnic groups they considered inferior as happened with the Jews and the Gypsies in favor of favoring the domination of the Aryan race, considered by them as superior. The extermination also affected the mentally ill, those who were not exterminated ended up being sterilized.

The movement eugenic was not politics state only for Nazi Germans, countries like the United States, England also carried out eugenic actions by trying not to mix interracial through the control of migration, the institutionalization of the marriage union subject to a large number of moral precepts and contraception by means of the involuntary sterilization of individuals with mental disorders, epilepsy, the disabled, alcoholics as well as the poor, African Americans, homosexuals and prostitutes.

All these actions were intended to carry out a process of selection of individuals artificially, to Unlike the controls carried out by nature in its normal process of evolution that are known as natural selection.

The new eugenics

Although eugenics raises a great ethical and moral debate that led it to decline after the Second World War, it does not disappear completely, rather, for the nineties, the subject took on a new dimension from the discovery of the human genome, with which its sustenance is related to the pursuit of health care and improvement of the race without segregation, which will ultimately benefit society.

The knowledge of DNA and the great advance in genetics and genetic engineering have led to the possibility of diagnosis and even genetic manipulation before birth, with which it is possible to carry out a selection process that allows avoiding the expression of certain diseases or disabilities to the new individual.

The fact that the adoption of these measures can be carried out voluntarily by individuals leads to the current talk of a liberal eugenics, since the final decision to carry them out or not is taken by the parents or, failing that, by the woman during the pregnancy or before procedures such as fertilizations or artificial insemination.

Photos: iStock - RealCreation / Dieter Meyrl