Comment on This Woman Will Decide Which Babies Are Born
Maggoty@lemmy.world 5 months agoNo. Eugenics is race theory as much as it’s anything scientific. It was about making sure the “correct” races had children. I don’t know what the name this is in science but Eugenics isn’t about making kids healthier, it’s about making them whiter.
Patches@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
No that’s literally what it means:
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eugenics
starman2112@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
But this isn’t selective breeding, unless you twist the definition to the point where it means something wholly different. If I understand right, this is just screening embryos for potential health problems.
Patches@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
Maggoty@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Genetic screening has been around for awhile now. The scam here (if there is one) is them claiming this is new. Maybe they have a better screening, but this is not Theranos.
The theory of eugenics is specific to racist ideology. They sterilized minorities so they couldn’t have children because they wanted more white people. That’s why it says “inherited qualities of a race, especially of human beings” it is specifically calling race out as separate from the idea of all humans.
starman2112@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
Closest, but the method used by eugenics is explicitly selective breeding.
sepulcher@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
You specifically left out the “a science” part, which is also part of the “kids’” definition for eugenics in your source.
eugenics noun eu·gen·ics yu̇-ˈjen-iks : a science that deals with the improvement of inherited qualities of a race or breed and especially of human beings
Removing the “a” from the beginning completely changes the meaning of the word, which is why you did it.
Shame.
billwashere@lemmy.world 5 months ago
If this is indeed like GATTACA selecting specific embryos after fertilization is not really selective breeding. Selective breeding is picking the parents. This is picking the children. You could do both but it didn’t seem like that is what was happening. I could still see this likely leading to problems genetically not dissimilar to problems with inbreeding. Genetic diversity requires the randomness of life to be useful long term.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Did you miss where they do that by sterilization? And qualities of a race or breed?
Do you speak English? Is this a translation error?
sepulcher@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
You specifically left out the “a science” part, which is also part of the “kids’” definition for eugenics.
eugenics noun eu·gen·ics yu̇-ˈjen-iks : a science that deals with the improvement of inherited qualities of a race or breed and especially of human beings
Removing the “a” from the beginning completely changes the meaning of the word, which is why you did it.
Shame.
kurcatovium@lemm.ee 5 months ago
I’m not native speaker so please excuse my stupid question. How does the “a” change the meaning? My language doesn’t even have articles so I have troubles with using them or understanding such nuances.