There are many examples in history that science tends to often balance on the verge of good and evil. Some of the researchers are simply trying to test a new medicine on themselves, while others adhere to more radical methods of knowing themselves and the world, preferring to conduct experiments, the morality of which leaves much to be desired. Experiments of this kind, sometimes bordering on cruelty, have accompanied science throughout its existence. One of the most resonant experiments of the 20th century may be the experience of introducing eugenics into ordinary human life, which Nazi researchers actively promoted among the population of Germany. Can such actions be justified for the benefit of humanity or an individual nation, or can the doctrine of human selection be officially recognized as immoral?
What is eugenics?
When, at the end of the 19th century, Sir Francis Galton, an anthropologist and part-time cousin of Charles Darwin, became the leader of a new and very fashionable movement that originated in England, he probably could not imagine what the development of eugenics would lead to in the future. about human selection. The scientist believed so much in the brainchild he developed that he seriously argued that the doctrine could become a new religion and part of the national consciousness. Galton was confident that it was possible to construct special people, whose physical and mental parameters would in many ways surpass other races. At the same time, all those who, in the opinion of the special commission, will be recognized as inferior and “feeble-minded,” will have to lose the right to reproduce.
Taking as a basis the theory of his cousin Charles Darwin, who was the pioneer of the theory of evolution, Galton developed a special rating of people in which he placed Australian aborigines one "class" below Africans.
This classification caused a great response from the public, which provoked the introduction of horrific policies in Nazi Germany, where thousands of disabled people were killed, and also contributed to the emergence of a law to sterilize tens of thousands of people in the United States in the early 20th century.
Sir Francis Galton - the founder of eugenic doctrine.
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Eugenics: pros and cons
As you know, everything in our world comes from curiosity. A person always wondered, “What if …?”, But this did not always lead to positive results. In the case of eugenics, science has emerged as a powerful weapon for change in the hands of people in power. So, in 1913 in Great Britain a law on mental deficiency was introduced, according to which, those people who, for one reason or another, were recognized as “feeble-minded,” had to be separated from society and literally locked up in specialized colonies.
A little later, in Nazi Germany, the Aktion Tiergartenstrasse 4 program or the T-4 Killing Program was officially introduced, within the framework of which more than 300,000 disabled people were killed, the main motive for which was the belief in the “cleansing” of the Aryan race and the world as a whole from “extra” people …
The main motive of the eugenic program was the creation of a perfect race of people without any physical or mental disabilities.
Due to the fact that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was an ardent supporter of eugenics, in his opinion not only people suffering from mental ailments, but also almost half of the globe fell under the concept of "feeble-minded". For example, Churchill openly spoke about his dislike of Indians, Kurds and even Germans, in whom absolutely healthy women could fall under the category of imbeciles in case of medical complications during the birth of a child.
Despite the fact that eugenics is currently under an official taboo, some of it is still beginning to revive in the form of human DNA research. So, already now, for a certain fee, you can produce a “designer” person with a given color of eyes, hair and other external characteristics. In addition, DNA research in the near future will be able to allow humanity to forget about genetic diseases forever, preventing them at a very early stage of fetal development. However, how can you find this fine line that makes eugenics and the science that supports it immoral?
Daria Eletskaya