Ripped from the headlines...
I shamelessly steal a Law and Order advertising slogan for my title, so that I can talk about what I saw on Law and Order last night while I was supposed to be reading Brueggemann.
(I long ago decided that this blog should be about more than what I did today, etc. Recent health difficulties have prompted many of my posts recently, and this post is an attempt to get back to inspirational/philosophical/theological/reflective/challenging posts.)
The case involved the involuntary sterilization of a child abusing teenage crack addict (who happened to be African American) by a public health clinic nurse (who happened to be white). The girl died as a result of the sterilization drugs, and the nurse was brought up on murder charges.
"Eugenics" is the term for the kind of policy that the nurse was promoting. The premise, based on simplistic understandings of genetics, is that if certain undesirable types can be sterilized, society will benefit. Put another way, if it can be proven that people with certain undesirable physical, mental, or behavioral properties are more likely to produce offspring with those same tendencies, that it is for the greater good of the society to prevent such offspring from being born.
What do you think? Should there be a program to reduce undesirable traits and behaviors in society by the involuntary sterilization of people with those traits? I'm sure that some of my readers don't care or won't voice an opinion, but I assume that some of you will chime in on this one.
I'll post a comment later on about what I think about the issue.
Jason
posted by Jason Fry @ 11:18 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
i'm all for sterilyzing people who talk on the phone while driving!
no really, its a tough question. its not unlike the euthenasia question... why do all these words for "taking something intimatly personal away against ones will" start with the letters EU? there is little that is truly good about that.
however, there are cases in which one is tempted, as Shana has pointed out, to stop the madness. i guess i would be for both euthenasia and eugenics if i could be sure that the family of the person or persons to recieve the EU treatment made the decision... not the court, the doctor, or the church...
then of course we have to realize that families are not always properly motivated.
its complex!
Yep, it's complex. In general, I'm in favor of involuntary sterilization of the blatantly criminal or the blatantly incompetent. The problem is, somebody has to ultimately make the decision about who and who isn't competent. I'm all for eugenics in principle, but I'm not willing to be the one who has to decide.
Another problem is that arguments of eugenics are behind many "ethnic cleansings" including the Nazi holocaust. Race obviously shouldn't be a factor.
Post a Comment
<< Home