Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site mhuxm.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!floyd!harpo!eagle!mhuxl!mhuxm!abeles
From: abeles@mhuxm.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Breeding of Humans
Message-ID: <1160@mhuxm.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 20-Dec-83 12:16:40 EST
Article-I.D.: mhuxm.1160
Posted: Tue Dec 20 12:16:40 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 21-Dec-83 05:37:48 EST
References: <331@hocda.UUCP>, <1123@rocksvax.UUCP> <1128@rocksvax.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 25

I find the idea of eugenics to be repulsively disgusting mainly
because I imagine that individuals would end up being manipulated
by some kind of Federal Eugenics Commission.  Thus freedom as we
know it would be compromised.

But here's a nightmare: what if the Russians, e.g., practiced it
and produced superior strategists, scientists, etc?  Would we
be drawn into a mutually assured destruction of morality?

In one particularly memorable STAR TREK episode, there is mention
of the "Eugenics Wars", a period in the history of the Earth in
which those bred with superior skills became necessarily highly
aggressive and drew the world into their own military aspirations.
(In the episode those same superior people come out of suspended
animation after being found by the Enterprise and try to take over.)

As you all know, the Nazis were practitioners of eugenics in a
general fashion.  I think most normal people agree that the effect
was not tolerable by free people anywhere.

However, it is up to any individual to decide what he values in another
person, and depending on his or her own appeal he will more or less
attract a mate of those qualities.  Not everyone may think in those
exact terms, but the possibility is there.  I don't think there is
anything that can or should be done about that kind of eugenics.