Eugenics

In response to The Eugenics Temptation, By Michael Gerson, http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/10/equality_over_perfection.html , who argues both sides of abortions to prevent disabilities.

By the sounds of it, eugenics is already a fait accompli thanks to abortions. How long can a population keep destroying 90% of down syndrome foetuses, unless it is so deeply ingrained in our DNa that we can never really get rid of it at all? We have much to learn about genetics. Abortion is the West's answer to infanticide, but both accomplish the same thing - getting rid of unwanted children, or genes. Given that animals have a tendency to disown runts and eat their young, this may well simply be a modern subconscious expression of a natural drive.

Of course those who are disabled are grateful to have lived - but what of all of the foetuses and antifanticides that have already been executed? You can't defend the existence of disabilities, if they, as the article suggests, are going to increasingly put disabled people on the margins of society, simply because there are living people with disabilities. People have already establishd their right to abort unwanted foetuses, which means that eugenics is already occurring in mass numbers.

I think one day we'll realize that both right and left by their actions already condone social engineering, either through abortion or education. And those who have not been born will not miss their lives. Is there an egalitarian duty to perpetuate disabilities? Why so, if we can abort children because we do not even have the economic means to support them? Of course, where the slippery slope ends is a big question.