Genetic Testing: Friend Of The New Eugenics

Here’s a comprehensive piece that argues that, yes, the new eugenics is firmly established in the 21^st century.

Unnatural selection: Is evolving reproductive technology ushering in a new age of eugenics?

In-vitro fertilization and genetic testing are increasingly used, including in Canada, by couples capable of conceiving naturally, to screen out not just catastrophic diseases but other 'undesirable' conditions. Will the future see a genetic elite rise above the messy, natural masses, and is that so bad?

Humanity has long dreamed of perfection, striving to be faster, stronger and brighter, pushing nature to the limit. Four centuries before people were conceived in a petri dish, Swiss alchemist Paracelsus claimed flawless little beings could be grown in pumpkins filled with urine and horse dung, but there is no record he produced a crop.

With the birth of Louise Brown in 1978, the test tube finally succeeded where the pumpkin had failed, and the year she turned 11, scientists moved beyond making life in a lab: They found a way to peer into an embryo's genes and predict what that life might be like. more