![]() ![]() But even if Rutherford is surely right to call eugenics a “busted flush”, he’s also wise to warn of the dangers of a revival. Rutherford insists that such approaches are unlikely to work, given the near-impossibility of discerning a specific trait from the fiendishly complex interactions of genes. In the near future, some predict, parents will be able to “choose” desirable traits in their children – either by selecting between screened embryos, or by editing their offspring’s genomes. And now, eugenics is being given a new boost by the emergence of modern genetics. In California, the practice was only banned in prisons in 2014. Even after the Second World War, enforced sterilisation persisted in many countries. Not quite, said Philip Ball in the FT: eugenicist ideas never really went away. But though eugenicist ideas flourished in the early decades of the 20th century, they were dealt a seemingly killer blow by the “genocidal atrocities” of the Nazis. His idea of “positive eugenics” (using selective breeding to raise the calibre of humans) inspired disciples from across the political spectrum, including a young Winston Churchill, the liberal reformer William Beveridge, and the birth-control pioneer Marie Stopes. The man regarded as the father of modern eugenics is the Victorian polymath Francis Galton, said Tim Adams in The Observer. Book of the week: The Last Emperor of Mexico by Edward Shawcross. ![]() What is eugenics and why are Tory aides interested in it?. ![]()
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