So, after re-reading some of my last post while trying to decide what to write about for today’s, one of the points I made about the Bene Gesserit stood out at me. At one point, I said that…
“In today’s world of morally restricted politics and science, a project of this nature, the breeding of human beings, would be impossible.”
As I was interested in how Herbert portrayed this concept in Dune, I decided to do some research about its application to the real world. I very quickly discovered that my preconceptions couldn’t have been more wrong.
Upon Googling the “breeding of humans”, the first page that appeared on my screen was on the field of eugenics, which as it happens, is defined by Webster as, “The science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics.” So, scratch one for me. As it turns out, eugenics is a very real and, at least at one time, practiced form of genetic manipulation. The next revelation: eugenics has actually seen wide support throughout history from many world leaders, the most prominent, of course, being Adolf Hitler (oh yeah… the whole “perfect race” thing…).
After that clicked, I figured I had found my answer- guiding human bloodlines has been practiced once in the real world, and has resulted in all of the expected dystopian side-effects (i.e. mass segregation, forced sterilization and genocide). However, as I read farther, it didn’t take long to realize that this wasn’t quite accurate either. Originally proposed by Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, in 1883, the idea of mankind taking over where evolution had supposedly “left off” spread around the globe surprisingly quickly. By the beginning of the 20th century many countries had actually enacted eugenic policies, everything from birth control to marriage restrictions to forced sterilization or pregnancies. The practice, in its varying forms, has been supported by many influential figures throughout history, including Winston Churchill, H.G. Wells and Theodore Roosevelt.
In the years leading up to World War Two, eugenics actually saw it’s “Golden Days” when genetic policies were implemented in Sweden, Canada and the United States (in New York City, even), mostly dealing with the treatment of the mentally ill. Then, however, came the rise of Nazi Germany, and with it Aktion T4 (the systematic euthanization of the mentally ill and deformed infants), and the segregation and eradication of the Jews (the “genetically inferior”), and all of the dark sides of eugenics that are popularized today. In a few years, Hitler effectively put his black stamp on the name of eugenics forever.
Despite this, I was surprised to learn, the core philosophy of eugenics lives on, and with the rise of modern genetic technology, we are still encountering the ethical dilemma of genetic alterations today, in the form of “made-to-order babies” and cures for genetic diseases. How do you actually define genetic manipulation? And what defines a genetic disorder? Where is the line between medicine and eugenics? Is eugenics in itself immoral, or does it result in immoral means of implementation? These are questions that many are still trying to answer.
