EUGENICS R GOOD: TRUE or FALSE ??

U said:Let me add something that will sound rather inconsistent with myself:
I have never liked my appearance,
and dislike the insults gratuitously offered to me by mirrors that I pass.

Occasionally, watching a movie I think:
" I 'd be better off if I looked half as good as that guy."

REGARDLESS of that fact:
when I feel regretful about that, it has frequently been the case
that I coud see no one around me with whom I 'd wish to trade,
and A LOT that are very significantly worse off.







Those people to whom u refer among the "miraculous variation"
might well desire to improve their respective conditions.

In some cases, it seems extremely likely that thay woud,
e.g., those so badly obese as hardly able to move.





David

You mean you'd feel better about your appearance- because honestly David- you can't know much about 'that guy' beyond what he appears to be to onlookers.


I've often thought the very same thing ...not about appearance but my whole package including family, childhood, abilities, friends, personality traits, etc. in that I mean there are loads of people I might rather look like but if that included trading who I was and what made me who I was, I wouldn't want to.

And you have to face the fact David that how you look is a direct result of who you come from and who you are and who you are is a direct result of what you look like. So changing what you look like would definitely have effectively changed who you are.



Yes, I'm sensitive to that although variation doesn't always have to mean deficiency.


Diet and exercise might be something to try before employing eugenics though.

U said:I remember an episode of PICKET FENCES that I used to watch in the 1980s,
wherein there was concern qua the endocrine system of a little boy whose growth
was less than normal. A decision was made to correct this by giving him growth hormone.
A group of midgets found out about it and generated efforts to interfere, picketed in protest,
in that thay deemed it expressive of an opinion that there was something rong with being a midget.

Thay alleged that thay were normal.


Genetics shoud be used to correct deficiencies,
if the afflicted party desires this assistance.





David

David wrote:
aidan wrote:
That is what I mean.



David wrote:
aidan wrote:
NOT before, if genetic engineering is applied before birth.





David

Like I said, it's a very interesting and complex subject. I was just at the airport the other day and I saw one of the most beautiful children I can ever remember seeing, and I'm including my own in that - he was this little three or four year old boy with down's syndrome wearing a yarmulke and playing with the fringe of his father's prayer shawl and he was just entrancing. And what made him different (the shape of his eyes and the roundness of his face) are what made him so beautiful.
And I know that along with that sweetness in his face, come a lot of worries and sadnesses for his family and potential health problems for him, but I can't look at him as nothing more than a mistake.

This thread reminds me of something I read somewhere - maybe even here that asked if they could isolate the genetic marker for homosexuality, would people (as potential parents) choose to take advantage of that opportunity to eradicate that sexual preference in their offspring. I think I may have read about it somewhere else, because I was surprised to read that many, in fact the majority of gay people who responded, were really opposed to that and offended by it, whereas my first thought, not being gay myself, is that I didn't think I would want or choose to be gay if I had a choice. But people who are gay, seemed to have voiced the opinion that they wouldn't have wanted to or chosen to be different than they were.

Yeah! I think that's an eminently reasonable approach. But as I said, that's gene therapy that's not eugenics.

Because eugenics involves selective breeding either for the elimination or dominance of certain traits- so you're giving the parties who either will or will not carry or possess those traits no say in the matter of what they are or will become.
You are creating them to reflect your preferences- not theirs.

There's an obvious God syndrome in back of all eugenics.

And an inherent subjectivity that replaces nature's utter objectivity.