Benefits of Eugenics Essay Example

Eugenics is the idea that only humans with desirable traits should have offspring with the ultimate goal being the full control of the genetic traits in humans. These improvements could be strength, agility, intelligence, or height. Some of the pros of eugenics are that it could prevent genetic defects, provide immunity to diseases and viruses, and improve the overall physical health of people. On the surface, eugenics may seem like a great idea but with deeper thought, it has many problems such as forced sterilization, coercion, and inequalities. 

Genetic defects such as down syndrome, cystic fibrosis, and thalassemia could potentially be completely bred out of the human genetic pool with eugenics. By not allowing anyone with the potential to have genetic defects in their children to have children over time these defects would become nearly nonexistent. 

Having full control over genes may even allow us to introduce traits that aren’t naturally found in the genetic pool such as the immunity to viruses and diseases. This ability could save millions of lives from deadly diseases such as malaria in poor countries, heart disease in richer countries, and even cancer which kills people globally. The current pandemic has shown that facing a newly born virus is terrifying and very costly in vaccines. Not needing to individually vaccinate people from viruses may save enormous amounts of money for future generations. 

Physical abilities in humans can be improved like any animal that we have domesticated. For example, chickens have been bred to have more meat, cows have been bred to produce more milk, and pigs have been bred to have less fat. There is no question that with selective reproduction humans can become stronger, faster, and smarter by only allowing those with high aptitudes for those traits to have children. Over time the overall average for these traits will increase through the use of eugenics. 

One of the main problems of eugenics is the forced sterilization of millions if not billions of people that don't have the specific traits that people are looking for or are lacking in those traits. Forcing people to be sterilized would be very unethical breaking basic human rights. In the past when forced sterilization was done most notably under Hitler “resulted in thousands of forced sterilizations”(‘Eugenenics’). To suggest or to bring back forced sterilization would cause global panic and rebellion against those who try to enforce the laws. 

On the topic of enforcing laws, how the government would react to those who would refuse the sterilization or those who don't like the idea of eugenics altogether is an important question. How would people be punished if they didn’t want to be sterilized and how much would the government be able to do?  The point is that at a large scale this eugenics would be very difficult to pull off or it would be an atrocity.

Lastly, if we do achieve full control over human genetics and allowing parents to control traits would certainly not be cheap. People who are very wealthy would have every one of their children to be as perfect as genetically possible and on the other hand, people who are poor or just not wealthy wouldn’t be able to modify their child at all. Eventually, this would create a gap beyond just money between the poor and the rich differences in intelligence and physical capabilities. 

In my opinion, I think that eugenics is simply a way too radical an idea to apply to a global scale. I think that if you were to just tell couples the chances of their children getting certain genetic defects a lot of people would listen to the warning or adopt instead. I think that forcing people to do anything is generally a bad idea especially when it comes to sensitive things like having children. I certainly believe that a slow decline in genetic defects is possible but the eradication of genetic defects through eugenics is cruel. 

In conclusion, eugenics has a lot of benefits if it were to be successful and we could control the genetics of future generations but on that road to that potential success is far too inhumane. The potential benefits are the removal of genetic defects, the immunity to many viruses and diseases, the overall improvement of the human race. The cons with the use of eugenics are that people will be forcibly sterilized, laws would be made that break human rights, and the rich and poor will have major differences. Eugenics is a utopian concept that will create a dystopian society.