Below is a relatively short compilation of key excerpts from the lengthy Chapter 24, Eugenics, of Brian Clowes's book, The Facts of Life. The Eugenics Table of Contents link at the end of this document provides access to the full text of Chapter 24. What the Anti-Lifers Think [...] Although they have eschewed the word, many anti-lifers still believe that the practice of eugenics possesses an entirely undeserved negative reputation. They say that the science of eugenics - or, as it is often called now, "human genetics" - is merely the use of scientific principles to solve the problem of improving the health of the entire human race - by improving the health of individuals. Then they go on to stereotype pro-lifers, saying that "scaremongers would have us believe that slavering Nazi butchers in white lab coats are waiting in the wings for just the right moment to perform their hideous experiments on the unsuspecting. What nonsense!"
The majority of anti-lifers will indeed disavow the word "eugenics," but not its practice. They approve of population control, sex-selection abortions, prenatal testing followed by the abortion of handicapped preborns, in-vitro fertilization and all kinds of other assisted reproduction techniques, fetal experimentation and organ harvesting, cloning and euthanasia. All of these practices are purely eugenic in nature, because they "select out" weaker human beings for extinction through artificial selection. [...] Why Pro-Lifers Should Study Eugenics [...] The Distilled Anti-Life Mentality. The theory of eugenics is the purest distillation of anti-life thinking. The practice of eugenics is simply the anti-life movements in action. The theory and practice of eugenics covers the entire spectrum of the "slippery slope," from artificial contraception to abortion to euthanasia to genocide, and also encompasses many other evils as well.
Eugenics is and always has been a racist philosophy. Even some pro-abortion theorists recognize that it is always wealthy white people who drive the movement to exterminate those they consider imperfect - and many times, dark skin is considered an "imperfection" [see Figure 24-8 (not included in this excerpt) for a "lineup" of famous eugenicists - almost every one of whom is wealthy and white]. As radical feminist Ninia Baehr has observed, "Historically, white, heterosexual, able-bodied, middle-class men and women in the population control, birth control, eugenics, and abortion rights movements have not respected the choices of people who were different from them."[4]
The second hallmark of eugenics is its use of abortion. Both on a national and a personal scale, prenatal diagnosis and abortion are the ideal tools for eliminating the less-than-perfect. In China, India and other Asian countries, this lethal combination has led to the deaths of tens of millions of preborn babies - not because they were handicapped, but because they were female (see Chapter 4 {not included in this excerpt}, "China's Forced Abortion Program"). In the United States, the National Institute of Health (NIH) has found that parents aborted more than 95 percent of all preborn babies who were found "defective" by prenatal genetic tests.[5]
In summary, eugenics is the foundation for "scientific racism;" it is the driving force behind abortion, euthanasia, embryo and fetal research, the global population policy, and a galaxy of other evils so bizarre they would have been unimaginable to even the most inventive science-fiction writer in the 1950s. Eugenics philosophy is ingrained in all of the social sciences, to include anthropology, sociology and psychology. Since it is so pervasive, it is worth studying and understanding. The Basics of the Eugenics Philosophy [...] Introduction. Despite all of the posturing and lofty theorizing of the eugenicists, there stands one immutable, diamond-hard fact: We must not, we cannot, dispose of human life if we perceive it as valuable and sacred. The eugenicists know that, once the connection between God and man is severed, man is no more than a product of the evolutionary chain, and is just another animal to be bred, aborted, neutered, or 'put to sleep' for the general good of society.
If the eugenicists can successfully convince society in general that "man is just another animal," they have virtually accomplished their ultimate goals. After all, we have no moral or ethical problems with breeding, aborting, and slaughtering animals. If the nature of man as God's greatest creation is generally denied, then we truly are just another species of soulless animal.
The practice of eugenics is nothing more than the anti-life mentality put into action. The theory and execution of eugenics-related activities ties all of the anti-life practices together.
Eugenics is diametrically opposed to the precepts of Christianity. On one side of this struggle we have Christian morality handed down by God and set down in Holy Scripture as interpreted by the Church Fathers; on the other side we have eugenicist 'morality' handed down by Darwin and set down in On The Origin of Species as interpreted by the eugenicist 'fathers.' [...] The Programs Continue Today. Racist and "classist" eugenics programs are still being carried out today. Abortion mills are concentrated in minority neighborhoods (see Figure 24-18-not included in this excerpt). 'Developed' nations pour millions of dollars into China's forced abortion program. The Federal government continues to fund 90 percent of the cost of sterilization of poor women under Medicaid and other family planning programs, but will not pay for infertility treatments.[19]
Of course, we still have many influential pro-abortion and pro-eugenics scientists calling for enforced sterilization and abortion. Dr. Cecil B. Jacobson, Chief of the Reproductive Genetics Unit of George Washington University Hospital, asserts that "I can't imagine any reasonably responsible person arguing against the abortion of mongols ... If we could tell what fetuses are going to be affected with cancer in their 40s and 50s, I would be for aborting them now."[20] [...]
The First Step: Dehumanization. The first step in any eugenics or euthanasia program is to dehumanize the 'target' population. After all, it is much easier to kill or exploit a victim or an enemy who has been dehumanized and demonized.
Pro-abortionists first dehumanized the obviously human fetus by referring to it as "protoplasmic rubbish," "a gobbet of meat," "equivalent to fingernail clipping or warts," "like a salamander," and "products of conception."
During the days of slavery, Blacks were called "dregs of humanity," and were considered "exactly intermediate between the superior order of beasts such as elephant, dog, and orangutan, and European or White men." Other slave owners referred to the slave's "ignorance, brutality, obscenity, animal appetite, viciousness, and illegitimacy," and called them "ignorant, perverse, wicked, the pest of white men, and agents of Satan." [73] [...] The Ultimate Goals of the Eugenicists [...] Introduction. The ultimate goals of the eugenicists are incredibly far-reaching. These objectives include not only the elimination of 'bad human stock' through negative eugenics, but also the 'bio-engineering' of an 'improved' human being through positive eugenics.
Many scientists, drunk with the euphoria of treading where no thinking human being has dared go before, are plunging headlong into lines of research that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. In addition to accumulating arcane knowledge, the 'biocrats' have also acquired a dangerous elitist attitude. [...]
In other words, ethics and morals, along with judgment, have been sacrificed in order to advance the mad dash for knowledge. [...] For example, if researchers continue along current lines of inquiry, it will soon be possible for a woman to conceive and bear her own (younger) identical twin sister; it will be possible to allow human embryos to gestate in apes of various species (or even in bovines) in order to bypass the legal barriers now springing up against surrogate motherhood; and it may well soon be possible for homosexuals to fulfill their long-standing fantasy of male pregnancy. [...] Sterilizing the Tarnished Image [...] Introduction. By the end of World War II, the word "eugenics" had lost much of its glittering appeal. People saw and remembered what could happen when eugenics programs, with all of their empty promises, were given free rein. The "new eugenicists" insisted that the problem was not eugenics practice, but the Nazis - they had simply gone "too far." They renamed their societies, overhauled their publications, and continued to work in the field, only under the name "human genetics."
But thinking people recognized that the Vernichtungslagern - the death camps - were not an aberration of eugenics theory but its most perfect product.
Unfortunately for humanity in general, eugenicists, like the Communists, are convinced of the correctness of their clouded vision, no matter how many failures they suffer. They will not be deterred by an infinity of failures or a mountain of evidence against them. They think that all they have to do is tinker with the theory, refine it a little, and try again.
And so, after World War II, the eugenicists went 'underground' in their activities, if not in their thinking. Their primary purpose for about 40 years after the end of the War was image building and damage control. They sought to sanitize and make innocuous the appearance of the roots of eugenics, and they sought to sever the concept entirely from the horrors of World War II.
Dr. Horace Blacker noted that "The [British Eugenics] Society should pursue eugenic ends by less obvious means, that is by a policy of crypto-eugenics, which was apparently proving successful with the US Eugenics Society."[110] [...] The Power Behind the Theories. The front line of the eugenics cartel has historically included a vast international web of more than 250,000 full-time psychiatrists, psychologists, physicians, college professors, bankers, bioethicists, writers, fundraisers, publicists, attorneys, judges, legislators, publishers, editors, prominent Neoliberal churchmen, and newspaper owners. The eugenics movement now has more than twice as many full-time employees than it did when it originally flowered in the 1920s and 1930s.
In order to give an idea of what type of influential people are members of eugenics groups, Figure 24-8 (not included in this excerpt) lists just a few of the more famous members of the American and British Eugenics Societies.
Note that this partial list includes the following influential people, and keep in mind that the American and British Eugenics Societies are just two of many eugenical organizations [...] These eugenicists are backed up by the full financial and organizational might of more than 250 pro-euthanasia, pro-abortion, animal rights, environmentalist, and homosexual groups, and tens of millions of people who like to think of themselves as 'progressives.'
Just for a moment, try to imagine the magnitude of the colossal influence and power wielded by this massive group of individuals and organizations. They literally have trillions of dollars worth of money and influence to wield.
The eugenics cartel is a very efficient and effective self-contained and self-sufficient industry that has many branches that interlock and support each other. They advance the eugenicist cause by simply eliminating those people they deem to be 'useless' or 'unwanted.' They push abortion, infanticide, contraceptive imperialism, eugenic euthanasia, genetic counseling and mapping, in-vitro fertilization, sterilization, sex education, and sex therapy, and a universe of other horrors that once were unthinkable to moral people.
It would be well worth your time to take a few minutes and read through this list to give yourself an idea of the magnitude of the power of the people associated with the American and British Eugenics Societies. [...]
But the Eugenicists Dream On. The eugenicists are now merely waiting for an opportune moment to re-emerge into respectable company. After abortion on demand was thrust upon the land, and after the much-publicized killings of numerous handicapped babies in the mid-1980s, the 'new eugenicists' inserted themselves into the growing public debate in the guise of pro-euthanasia groups.
Despite its tarnished image, the theory and practice of eugenics lives on in the United States. There apparently will always be those people who never seem to learn their lessons from history, those people who are so wrapped up in implementing their vision of the "perfect world" that they trample all others underfoot.
As George Santayana put it, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
Latter-day eugenicists are motivated by precisely the same desires as were those earlier in this bloody century. Primarily, they would like to (1) save money, and (2) insure that all members of the human race receive their "stamp of approval" before being entitled to exist or to continue their current existence. [...] Many men and women who are literally revered by the scientific world are hard-core eugenicists. It is frightening indeed that their more conventional ideas (still laced with the poisonous eugenics theory) have gained widespread acceptance in our Western society.
These "distinguished" thinkers and philosophers include George Bernard Shaw, Garrett Hardin, Paul Ehrlich, William Shockley, Margaret Sanger, Friedreich Nietzsche, and Charles Darwin. [...] "Genome:" The Final Frontier? The most efficient (and aesthetic) manner in which eugenicists could "cull" unwanted human beings from the population is through the testing of fertilized human eggs and the elimination of all but the very best.
At this point in time, the best negative eugenics practice consists of subjecting the preborn baby to CVS (chorionic villi sampling), amniocentesis, or some other genetic test past 15 weeks, and aborting those who are considered unfit. This is a messy, emotional and expensive project that could be vastly streamlined from the viewpoint of the eugenicists.
The Human Genome Project is a multibillion dollar effort funded primarily by the Federal government. Its objective is to identify and 'map' all of the more than 10,000 human genes.
This huge undertaking is already bearing fruit that eugenicists see as beautiful. But we may find, as we did in the Garden of Eden, that this is another fruit that is deadly poisonous to human beings. [...] Bishop and Waldholz go on to describe how, in the future, only the rich will be able to select their offsprings' traits by an extensive program of genetic testing. Thus, the rich would progressively become more and more advantaged over the poor in areas such as intelligence, beauty, and physical prowess. And, of course, since only the rich could afford "genetic choice," taxpayers would be forced to fund it for the poor - just as with abortion. [...]
Does Abortion Lower the Crime Rate?
The Researchers Make Their Case. In 2001, John J. Donohue III and Steven D. Levitt, law professors at Stanford and the University of Chicago respectively, published an article in Harvard University's Quarterly Journal of Economics in which they concluded that "Legalized abortion contributed significantly to recent crime reductions. ... Legalized abortion appears to account for as much as 50 percent of the recent drop in crime." The authors certainly did not recommend that abortion be used to curb crime, but noted that "Crime began to fall roughly 18 years after abortion legalization," and that the social benefit of this decrease in crime is about $30 billion annually.[120] [...]
The Moral Conclusions. The central thesis of the Donohue-Levitt study is that "a difficult home environment leads to an increased risk of criminal activity. Increased abortion reduced unwantedness and therefore lowered criminal activity."
However, although criminals may more likely come from a "difficult home environment," many talented and gifted individuals do as well - to include John Lennon, Charlie Chaplin, Louis Armstrong, playwright Eugene O'Neill, Audrey Hepburn, James Dean, Merle Haggard and comedian Tim Allen.[128] The point here is quite important: No matter how terrible a home environment is, no child is certain to become a criminal. Any program intended to exterminate the preborn children of the poor and disadvantaged will surely kill many more future good citizens than future criminals.
But since when have such trifling moral objections mattered to the eugenicists and pro-abortionists? Endnotes for Chapter 24, Eugenics, Excerpts
[4] Ninia Baehr. Abortion Without Apology: A Radical History for the 1990s [Boston: South End Press, 1990], see especially pages 33, 47 and 56. [5] Sorenson, "Some Social and Psychological Issues in Genetic Screening." Symposium on Intrauterine Diagnosis (D. Bergsma, editor). 1971, page 177. [19] Relf v. Weinberger, 372 F.Supp.1196(D.D.C1974), remanded for modification, sub nom Relf v. Matthews, 403 F.Supp.1235 (D.D.C.1975). Also see the "Women's Guide to Reproductive Rights." American Civil Liberties Union's (ACLU's) Reproductive Freedom Project, 1981. Page 23. [20] Cecil B. Jacobson, Chief of the Reproductive Genetics Unit at George Washington University Hospital, Washington, D.C. Psychology Today, September 1975, page 22. [73] Simon Clough. A Candid Appeal to the Citizens of the United States, Proving that the Doctrines Advanced and the Measures Pursued by the Abolitionists Relative to the Subject of Emancipation, are Inconsistent with the Teachings and Directions of the Bible and that those Clergymen Engaged in the Dissemination of these Principles Should be Immediately Dismissed by their Respective Congregations as False Teachers. New York, 1834. Also see Richard H. Colfax. Evidence Against the Views of the Abolitionists, Consisting of Physical and Moral Proofs, of the Natural Inferiority of the Negroes. New York, 1833. Also see W.P.N. Fitzgerald. A Scriptural View of Slavery and Abolition. New Haven, 1839. Also see R. Yearson. The Amenability of Northern Incendiaries ... Charleston, 1835, page 5. [110] Dr. Horace Blacker, Eugenics Review, London, Volume 60, page 154. [120] John J. Donohue III and Stephen D. Levitt. "The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime." Harvard University's Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 2001. The complete article is available on the Internet in PDF format at http://mitpress.mit.edu/journals/QJEC/Donohue.pdf. [128] John W. Whitehead. "Check the Facts." The Washington Times, June 28, 2001.
(Below, click on the Eugenics Table of Contents link to access all the material not covered in the short excerpts above) Eugenics Table of Contents
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