Liberal eugenics

Liberal eugenics or new eugenics is the study and non-coercive use of reproductive and genetic technologies to enhance human beings, specifically in regard to biological characteristics and capacities.

The term does not necessarily indicate that its proponents are politically or socially liberal in the modern sense. Rather, it is used to differentiate it from the authoritarian eugenics programs of the first half of the 20th century, which were associated with pseudoscience, racism, classism, and coercive methods to decrease the frequency of certain human hereditary traits passed on to the next generation. The most controversial aspect of those programs was the use of "negative" eugenics laws which allowed government agencies to sterilize individuals alleged to have undesirable genes. Historically, eugenics is often broken into the categories of positive (encouraging reproduction in the designated "fit") and negative (discouraging reproduction in the designated "unfit"). Many positive eugenics programs were advocated and pursued in early 20th-century eugenics programs, but the negative programs were responsible for the compulsory sterilization of hundreds of thousands of persons in many countries and states, and were contained in much of the rhetoric of Nazi eugenic programs of racial hygiene and ethnic cleansing.

Liberal eugenics is conceived as being mostly "positive", relying more on genetic manipulation than on selective breeding charts to achieve its aims. It seeks to both minimize congenital disorder and enhance ability, traditional eugenic goals. It is intended to be under the control of the parents exercizing their procreative liberty while guided by the principle of procreative beneficence, though the substantial governmental and corporate infrastructure required for human genetic engineering may limit or steer their actual choices. Currently, genetic testing such as preimplantation genetic diagnosis, have been developed to allow for embryos carrying congenital disorders to be discarded.

A key goal of liberal eugenics is to reduce the role of chance in reproduction. Bioethicist Joseph Fletcher laid the intellectual groundwork for liberal eugenics in 1974 when he described an alternative to "reproductive roulette". His visions soon became a reality when effective human in vitro fertilisation became possible in 1978. Modern interest in liberal eugenics is believed to have increased ever since.

According to health care public policy analyst RJ Eskow, libertarian eugenics is the term that would more accurately describe the form of eugenics promoted by some propopents in light of their strong opposition to even the minimal state intervention in reprogenetics-related issues which would be typical of a liberal democratic society.