Some Quick Facts About Eugenics

• Francis Galton, Charles Darwin’s cousin, was the first to coin the term eugenics in 1883.
• In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, government-sponsored eugenics programs got unexpectedly strong support in society, and not only among right-wing racists and social Darwinists but also among progressive leaders from many countries.
• First adopted in Nazi Germany, eugenic laws allowed the state to forcibly sterilize ‘feeble-minded’ people while encouraging more genetically endowed citizens to conceive as many children as possible.
• In the future, we will probably learn how to make people more genetically superior. Advances in science will let us alter specific genes in parents so they could be passed on to their children. And, of course, reproduction will not be restricted to genetically superior adult citizens.

Recent Advances in Genetic Engineering

• Genetically modified cells helped scientists cure a child with a previously incurable form of leukemia. A report published by the Scheie Eye Institute Perelman (Pennsylvania) revealed that the correction of a defective gene responsible for the proper functioning of the retina can be used for the treatment of Leber’s hereditary optic atrophy in children.
• Currently, at least three companies — Editas Medicine (USA), Caribou Biosciences (USA), and CRISPR Therapeutics (UK) — are trying to develop a technology capable of making genetic services available to the general public.
• If successful, they will provide parents with an opportunity to decide whether or not they should opt for an abortion if there’s a high probability of their child being born with a serious genetic disorder.
• Last year, He Jiankui, a Chinese biophysicist, succeeded in modifying the genes of two newly born twin girls Lulu and Nana, thus making them immune to HIV. However, the scientist was severely criticized for his experiment and even persecuted by the authorities.