Historically, eugenic ideals are clearly seen in the hateful policies of the Nazi regime, as well as in the guiding principles of the KKK. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood (PP), levied for strict procreation laws against minorities and the poor. She believed that only the upper classes should have the privilege of childbearing in hopes of developing a “cleaner race.” PP has carried on its founder’s creed, but attempts to soften it eugenic agenda by repeating the mantra “Every child a wanted child.” The question remains: Wanted by whom, the eugenically driven machine of PP, or each individual mother in a happy or desperate situation?
If the eugenics movement is allowed to infiltrate the mainstream culture of today and manipulate the way people view life, it will pervert the beauty found in the individuality of all humans. If people fail to realize what evil can come from engineering future generations to achieve man’s ideal of perfection, a new breed of discrimination will be born. It’s called genoism: discrimination against someone based on their “inferior” genetics. The topic is explored in the sci-fi movie Gattaca and although the discrimination seems far-fetched to the movie viewer, the reality of the situation hits closer to home than people may realize. Insurance companies routinely screen prospective clients for genetic indicators that show a pre-disposition to poor health, thereby denying coverage to an increasingly larger segment of the public. Pre-born children are submitted to genetic testing and aborted if found to be carrying Down's Syndrome or other less serious genetic anomalies. Currently over 80% of all Down's Syndrome children are being aborted. Preimplantation genetic screening allow prospective parents to choose only those fertilized eggs whose traits they specifically "order" for their newborn, allowing all others to be discarded as medical waste.
Will this movement towards genetic perfection one day leave those deemed “genetically inferior” in the same place the African American was in when they were ignorantly deemed “racially inferior”?