Should People With Hereditary Issues Be Allowed To Reproduce?
An English bulldog back in the 19th century would have been used for bull baiting and bull fighting. A cruel sport that has been banned, rightly, in recent times. Today, the bulldog whether it is an English bulldog or French bulldog, or some other type, is one of the more popular pet dog breeds in the world.
Of course, for a small dog to fight with a large bull, it definitely need to be ferocious, strong, powerful, and agile. But if you see bulldogs in 2021, they have a lot of problems that pet owners need to be ready to deal with. Some of the problems they face during their lifetime are:
- Dermatitis and other forms of skin allergies.
- Eye membrane disorder.
- Deformed bone structures, especially at the hips or hip dysplasia.
- Frequent overheating(one of the worst issues for a pet dog)
There are many more health issues that a bulldog faces throughout its lifetime, but the bulldogs back then, the actual bulldogs and not the pets, they were much healthier.
They were healthier due to proper breeding practices. Over the last 100 years, bulldogs have been subjected to certain breeding practices that have made them better for house pets. Their wild instinct has been tamed, their snouts have become smaller, their legs are bowed, their heads are disproportionately large, and many more issues. These physical changes have taken place due to excessive inbreeding. Many other dogs have been subjected to such practices to make them more appealing for the buyer. For example, some genetic lines of German Shepherds have sloping backs, a trait which was prized in contests, but now people have realized how much harm it does to the dog, and this practice has reduced.
How is all of this relevant to the title?
I hope you are asking the same question. See, when it comes to the dogs like bulldogs and German Shepherds, some of them have to live a substandard life due to the unethical breeding practices of greedy breeders. Those poor dogs don’t have an option but instead are at the mercy of the breeders who continue to breed offspring with hereditary disorders.
Now when it comes to humans, some genetic lines of humans too have such hereditary disorders. A few such genetic disorders are cancer, obesity, arthritis, heart disease, high blood pressure, Alzheimer's disease, and more.
Now when two people who have sadly been afflicted by such diseases, when they bring a new life into the world, the baby might have a certain chance of inheriting the disease. Can you imagine what it would be like for a 5 year old boy, to have diabetes, and having to deal with his classmates? Or a 7 year old girl with genetic obesity, having to deal with her classmates?
The question arises, can we allow such people to reproduce?
- If they are allowed to reproduce, then are they responsible for the child’s suffering, because they knew that the child can inherit a deadly hereditary disorder, yet they insisted on bringing new life into the world, and with it, misery for the rest of the child’s life?
- Who can actually tell someone not to give birth based on their hereditary disorder? After all they are humans, they have a right to do what they want to do. Just imagine their mental plight, if they are denied the opportunity to become parents just because of some genetic issue which was out of their control?
The second option was chosen back then, during the time of Eugenics. And the practice of Eugenics was banned some years later due to it denigrating the human spirit, and also institutionalizing blatant racism. However, revisiting that world, that Brave New World which Aldous Huxley envisioned, can help us decide the future of offspring born in genetically diseased lines.
Especially during the times after World War 1, the concept of Eugenics, or selective breeding of people with desirable characteristics, was all the rage.
The most popular example is of Adolf Hitler. He had a lifelong obsession to establish his Aryan Race as the dominant race, and he probably would have succeeded had they won the second world war.
Another popular but not widely discussed case is that of the famous evolutionary biologist, Charles Darwin.
According to Darwin, racial extermination has brought human evolution to where it is today, he suggested that Caucasians were superior to other races, particularly Africans and Aboriginal Australians.
Publishing something like the above statement in modern day research journal will probably get the paper cancelled, and the author cancelled.
But such an approach did help them back then. By producing suitable offspring, they had better prospects in war. Fitter men were born who could fight better, and increase chances of winning the wars.
Why was eugenics banned if it proved effective?
Hitler’s atrocities against the Jews didn’t go unnoticed. All the gas chambers that remain, narrate a harrowing tale of the fate faced by those he considered inferior. Even during the time of the Second World War where men were killed like flies getting swatted, Hitler’s actions were considered atrocious and inhumane. Also, the eugenics moment in America died away after slavery was abolished.
Genetic engineering has evolved vastly since the time of Eugenics. In the time of eugenics, selective races were bred while the so called inferior races were subdued either by forced sterilization, or by atrocities like the one by Hitler.
Modern day genetic engineering has evolved to such a stage that, the offspring can be born healthy through gene therapy. In some cases, genetic testing allows parents to identify potential diseases that the child can be born with, and this helps them take necessary action to make sure that the child isn’t affected. But such practices are really expensive for the average person to afford. They cost anything from $1.5 million and can go up to $23 million.
For us to truly exist to as a inclusive society, people with such genetic disorders should be able to afford gene therapies, as they too deserve to be parents of a happy, and healthy child.
