fr john fleming

8/7/2019 Fr John Fleming

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The Practice ofThe Practice of

EugenicsEugenics

TodayToday


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EugenicsEugenics an enduring part ofan enduring part of

fallen human naturefallen human natureDr John I Fleming

Adjunct Professor of Bioethics

Southern Cross Bioethics Institute


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What isWhat is eugenicseugenics??

(eu) = well (adverb of good)

(gen) = produce

Eugenic = of the production of fine(esp. human) offspring by improvementof inherited qualities.


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Principal ideas of eugenicsPrincipal ideas of eugenics

We need a strong and healthy state for

our own self-protection

Healthy progeny can be guaranteed byselective mating

Characteristics are inherited from

parents People wont like it because they may

see it as unfair, unjust


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ProblemsProblems

What is a strong or healthy person?

What of those who are physically weak butintellectually and morally strong?

What of those who are physically strong andbeautiful but intellectually and morally weak?

Reductionist account of the human being tosum total of his benefits as society deemsthem to be from time to time. Or, sum total of

their genes. Who decides? Society needs diverse types for society to

function.


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EUGENICS

1850-1945 Eugenics Favouring the fit, well-born;disfavouring the unfit

The unfit to be eliminated were: the

retards, the degenerates, thementally ill, alcoholics inheritedcurse.

That is, human beings are to be evaluated

in terms of benefits and burdens to othersas well as themselves. Principle of the netbalance of pleasure over pain.


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Francis Galton (1822 1911)

What Nature does blindly, slowly

and ruthlessly, man may do

providently, quickly and kindly.

(Francis Galton)

Galton believed that human stock

could be improved in two ways.


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Francis Galton Eugenics

Positive eugenics which aims toencourage and increase the number ofgood parents having more children,(arranged marriages, the collection of

pedigrees, social class, education,wealth) and that these superiorpeoples be offered incentives andkudos for doing so.


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Charles Davenport US)

Negative eugenics which aims to

limit the numbers of the unfit by

discouraging or coercing those

considered to be unfit from

reproducing their own kind. Before

technology was available,

sterilisations, infanticide, andmarriage prohibitions were among

the techniques employed.


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HERBERT SPENCER (C19)

He coined the term the

survival of the fittest.

GK Chesterton later

characterised it as the

survival of the nastiest


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Lord Bertrand Russell Eugenics

and the Power of the State

In his Marriage and Morals [first

published in 1929] Russell has a

whole chapter on eugenics of

which he approves.

The time is rapidly approaching

when [procreation] will have to be

deliberately controlled if [thiscontrol] is to be beneficial, [it] will

have to be by the interference of an

international State. (UN???)


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Lord Bertrand Russell

Sterilisation of Disabled WomenFeeble-minded women, as everyone

knows, are apt to have enormous

numbers of illegitimate children, all,as a rule, wholly worthless to thecommunity. These women wouldthemselves be happier if they were

sterilized, since it is not from anyphiloprogenitive impulse that theybecome pregnant. [Marriage andMorals, 130]


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Lord Russell Frankly

Eugenic Russell also appears to endorsePlatos idea that fit men breed withfit women. Vid Ibid., 135-136

Love apart from children should befree.

For procreation to be virtuous we

must have regard to the hereditywhich they transmit, that the manand the woman are likely to havedesirable children.


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GERMAN EUGENICISM

Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche, TheRelease of the Destruction of LifeDevoid of Value (1920).

Karl Binding - eminent professor oflaw specialising in jurisprudence andphilosophy

Alfred Hoche a leading Germanpsychiatrist.


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HOCHE AND BINDING

Alfred Hoche: the mentally ill are "idiots",a "financial burden" on the community,"ballast type persons of no value".

Karl Binding: killing, without consent, a"tortured sick person" is granting "deathwith dignity", a "healing intervention" andbelieved that "we are spending lots oftime, patience and care on the survival of

life devoid of value". These and other intellectuals had greatinfluence on the medical, legal, andpolitical professions


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THE NAZI EXPERIMENT

The German medical profession hadalready been radicalised long beforeHitler and the Nazis came to power.

Eugenics accepted widely in Europe,the US, and far away places likeAustralia

Winston Churchill wanted to lockaway the degenerates so that theircurse would die with them.


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WHAT THE NAZIS DID

They exterminated gypsies,

homosexuals, retards, degenerates,

the mentally ill

They exterminated the Jews in the worstracially motivated pogrom in human

history

Why? Because these human beings are

either not persons at all, or they areballast type persons of no value,

idiots to be exterminated.


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POST WORLD WAR II

When the full horror of the Naziexperiment was recognised there is aglobal determination that this must never

happen again Return to fundamental human values

If human rights are respected there is abetter prospect for peace in the world

Legal positivism went out at Nuremberg!That is, what the State says is morallyright is morally right, what is legal asmoral. Laws ofHumanity now hit centre

stage


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The End of DiscriminationThe End of Discrimination

With UN Charter and Bill ofRights enter

democracy for all

End to all forms of discrimination This was an end to all forms of killing

the innocent?

OR WAS IT?OR WAS IT?


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The more thingsThe more things

changechange

Plus a

change, plus

cest la mme

chose

The morethings change,

the more

things remainthe same


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Eugenics survives andEugenics survives and

revives!revives! Same intellectuals continued afterWW2

but more cautious for a time

From the 1960s business as usual

Margaret Sanger, contraception,abortion, eugenics (and racism) all

rolled into one extremely influential

woman and her socio-political goals Sanger key figure in the founding of

International Planned Parenthood

Federation (IPPF)


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Margaret Sanger and IPPFMargaret Sanger and IPPF

Planned Parenthood dates its

beginnings to 1916 when Sanger, her

sister, and a friend open America's first

birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New

York. (http://www.plannedparenthood.or

g/about-us/who-we-are/history-and-

successes.htm) Margaret Sanger: 14 September 1879

6 September 1966. Straddles pre-war

to post WW2


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Sanger, eugenics andSanger, eugenics and

population controlpopulation control ForSanger birth control was linked not

only to the liberation of women from the

tyranny of being nothing but a baby

incubator, it was also driven by her

eugenics.


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In the early history of the race, so-called natural law

reigned undisturbed. Under its pitiless and

unsympathetic iron rule, only the strongest, mostcourageous could live and become progenitors of the

race. The weak died early or were killed. Today,

however, civilization has brought sympathy, pity,

tenderness and other lofty and worthy sentiments,which interfere with the law of natural selection. We

are now in a state where our charities, our

compensation acts, our pensions, hospitals, and

even our drainage and sanitary equipment alltend to keep alive the sickly and the weak, who

are allowed to propagate and in turn produce a

race of degenerates.


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On blacks, immigrants and indigents:

"

... human weeds,' 'reckless breeders,spawning ... human beings who never

should have been born." Margaret Sanger,

Pivot of Civilization, referring to immigrants

and poor peopleOn sterilization & racial purification:

Sanger believed that, for the purpose of

racial "purification," couples should be

rewarded who chose sterilization. BirthControl in America, The Career of Margaret

Sanger, by David Kennedy, p. 117, quoting a

1923Sanger speech.


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Family planning linked withFamily planning linked with

eugenicseugenics On the rights of the handicapped andmentally ill, and racial minorities:

"More children from the fit, less from the unfit

-- that is the chief aim of birth control."BirthControl Review, May 1919, p. 12


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The legacy of MargaretThe legacy of Margaret

SangerSanger Contraception Abortion

Eugenics Population control

She died in 1966 but her influence liveson.


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SangerSangers Racisms Racism

[Racism: "We do not want word to go

out that we want to exterminate the

Negro population," she said, "if it ever

occurs to any of their more rebellious

members."Woman's Body, Woman's

Right: A Social History ofBirth Control

in America, by Linda Gordon] CfPlato


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HUMAN RIGHTS &HUMAN RIGHTS &

BIOETHICSBIOETHICS

Human rights apply inclusively to allmembers of the human family

Philosophers, bioethicists, medicos, nursesare all bound by the same human rights

obligations as others and have even higherduties.

We rightly celebrate the UDHR and otherdocuments as one of the great

achievements of humanity. BUT: many of the most influential

bioethicists continue to promote theeugenicists utopian dream but without the

racism of past generations.


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INFANTICIDEINFANTICIDEBUT infanticide is back on the agenda

among philosophers, bioethicists andother intellectuals. Examples include

Michael Tooley, Abortion and

Infanticide Helga Kuhse and PeterSinger, Shall

the Baby Live?

Mary Anne Warren

Recall Sanger: The most merciful

thing that a large family does to one

of its infant members is to kill it.


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PETER SINGERPETER SINGER

While it may sound shocking to some,certainly the chimpanzee is a more

morally significant being than an

anencephalic who, althoughundoubtedly biologically a member of

our species, lacks the brain and

therefore the capacities for any of

these things - for forming attachments

with other beings, even for recognising

his or her parents - and presumably

lacks all capacity for suffering as well.


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PETER SINGER & HELGAPETER SINGER & HELGA

KUHSEKUHSEThere is a limit to the burden of

dependence which any community

can carry. If we attempt to keep all

handicapped infants alive,irrespective of their future

prospects, we will have to give up

other things which we may wellregard as at least as important.


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PETER SINGERPETER SINGER Terminating the lives of birth-defective

infants"

is"

far less problematic than thelarger issue of infanticide."

When the death of a defective infant willlead to the birth of another infant with

better prospects of a happy life, the totalamount of happiness will be greater if thedefective infant is killed. The loss of ahappy life for the first infant is outweighed

by the gain of a happier life for thesecond. Therefore, if killing thehaemophiliac infant has no adverseeffect on others, it would, according tothe total view, be ri ht to kill him.


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ProfJohn Harris (UK)ProfJohn Harris (UK)

The British philosopher John Harris has

made the point that there is no ethical

difference between killing unborn

disabled children and killing those who

are born. [5th November2006]


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EugenicsEugenics

James Lachs:

The only way to treat hydrocephalic

children "humanely" is to "mercifully"

put them to death.

Mary Anne Warren:

Advocated "the kind, quick, painless,and direct method of lethal injection.


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Eugenics and euthanasiaEugenics and euthanasia

Life not worth living

PIGD (test embryo before implantation)

Prenatal genetic diagnosis (test foetus) Abortion (destroy defective unborn)

Infanticide (destroy defective newborn)

Euthanasia by neglect (no longer feedthose who have reached their use by

date)

Active euthanasia (directly kill)


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CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION

Thus being wanted, being

defective, and being a non-

person are interrelatedfactors in the moral

justification for eugenicinfanticide as it also is for

euthanasia.


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Conclusion (2)Conclusion (2)

Contemporary bioethics driven by

rejection of suffering as

irredeemable evil;excessive emphasis on

autonomy; and

excessive confidence in

goodness of doctors, nurses,

relatives etc


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Alternative perspectiveAlternative perspective

Unconditional love

Child as a gift

Child not owned

But these are the words you rarely

hear from eugenicists: love,humility, selflessness, and

gentleness. [Prof. Wesley Smith]


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Unproductive BurdensUnproductive Burdens

1. The utopian dreams of Lord FrancisBacon and the Enlightenment [C17]

2. Eugenics and Social Darwinism [C19-

20]3. Eugenics and the new genetics in the

late C20 to early C21

4. New technologies especially in thereproductive area

5. Mapping the human genome


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It is a new horizon in the history of man. Some maysmile and may feel that this is but a new version of theold dream, of the perfection of man. It is that, but it is

something more. The old dreams of the culturalperfection of man were always sharply constrained byhis inherent, inherited imperfections and limitations ...To foster his better traits and to curb his worse bycultural means alone has always been, while

clearly not impossible, in many instances mostdifficult ... We now glimpse another route - thechance to ease the internal strains and heal theinternal flaws directly, to carry on and consciouslyperfect far beyond our present vision this remarkableproduct of two billion years of evolution.

[Robert Sinsheimer, The Prospect of Designed Genetic Change,Engineering and Science, 32(1969), 8-13; reprinted in Ruth Chadwicked., Ethics, Reproduction, and Genetic Control, (London: Croom Helm,1987),

Pregnancy may be regarded as a tumor It differsPregnancy may be regarded as a tumor It differs


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Pregnancy may be regarded as a tumor. It differsPregnancy may be regarded as a tumor. It differsfrom most other tumors in two important regards.from most other tumors in two important regards.In the first place, it is normally a selfIn the first place, it is normally a self--terminatingterminatingdisease; in the second place, it is traditionallydisease; in the second place, it is traditionallyassumed to be caused by the invasion not of aassumed to be caused by the invasion not of avirus but rather of a protozoal flagellate. If for thevirus but rather of a protozoal flagellate. If for themoment we accept pregnancy as a tumor, thenmoment we accept pregnancy as a tumor, thenamniocentesis becomes a biopsy. As with otheramniocentesis becomes a biopsy. As with other

biopsy procedures there is little purpose served inbiopsy procedures there is little purpose served inundertaking this procedure unless one is willing toundertaking this procedure unless one is willing tosubscribe to the consequences which its studysubscribe to the consequences which its studyindicates. In other words, just as the frozen sectionindicates. In other words, just as the frozen sectionof a nodule in the breast connotes mastectomy ifof a nodule in the breast connotes mastectomy if

the reading of the frozen section indicates this, sothe reading of the frozen section indicates this, sodoes amniocentesis connote abortion if the tumordoes amniocentesis connote abortion if the tumorunder scrutiny proves to be malignant.under scrutiny proves to be malignant.

[De Witt Stetten, in Samuel Natelson, Antonio Scommegna, and Morton B.Epstein eds, Amniotic Fluid: Physiology, Biochemistry, and Clinical

Chemistry, (New York: Wiley, 1974), 277]


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UK EUGENIC ABORTIONSUK EUGENIC ABORTIONS

ABORTIONS AS AWHOLE

2001-20092001: 183,148

2009: 189,100

3.2% increase

1991-2009

1991: 117,5672009: 189,100

60.8% increase

EUGENIC ABORTIONS

2001-20092001: 1722

2009: 208521.1% increase

1991-2009

1991: 12232009: 2085

70.5% increase


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ConclusionConclusion

Even some pro-lifers accept the need

for eugenic abortion

The eugenic mentality bites deep intothe mentality of the culture

MAJOR PROBLEM FOR ALL PROMAJOR PROBLEM FOR ALL PRO--LIFELIFE

ORGANISATIONSORGANISATIONS


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IN THE END IN THE END

The persistence of eugenics andthe eugenic mentality remain as

threats to fundamental human

rights Applies to the old, sick and

disabled (cf Mental Capacity Act)

As well as to the young (bornand unborn), sick, and disabled


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Baroness Mary WarnockBaroness Mary Warnock

Warnock proposed the legalisation ofeuthanasia on the basis that the law

already permits the abortion of

handicapped unborn children. in an

article forCounsel, the official magazine

for barristers in England and Wales, she

writes: "It seems irrational to deny death

... to someone who, unlike the foetus, isable to make her own judgement that

her life is intolerable. [The Independent,

6 August 2002]


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And just when you thought itAnd just when you thought it

was safe to go out at night was safe to go out at night

Professor Julian Savulescu wants to screen

embryos to create a smarter society of

superior designer babies [First Things, 9

March 2011and reported Herald Sun on 13February 2011]

S wants to reduce welfare dependency,

number of school dropouts, crowded jails, and

poverty. Plus cest la meme chose!

Who is Savulescu?


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Superman!Superman!

An Australian who is Professor of

Practical ethics at the University of

Oxford.

His mentor? ProfessorPeterSinger.


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ProfessorWesley Smith reProfessorWesley Smith re

ProfessorProfessor SavulescuSavulescu

Intelligent people have caused

quite enough harm, thank you very

much. Instead of eugenically

selecting our progeny, lets instead

accept all as moral equals under the

principle of human exceptionalism,

the essential precondition touniversal human rights.


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