Damek.

OK, let’s ignore the moral quandaries of eugenics. I want to talk about why it’s just plain stupid. But first, a quick & dirty evolution review:

1) Organisms do not evolve. Well, not individual animals, that is. Populations of organisms evolve.

2) Evolution of a population means that the gene pool (the genes available for reproduction within the population) changes over time.

3) This can happen via a few different mechanisms. One is Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Another is genetic drift. Both happen because a population has variety.

4) Natural selection: if all the members of a population have trouble retaining water, and a drought happens, they’re all going to die. However, if some members are better at retaining water, they may survive. A change in the environment therefore selects for the organisms more able to survive and reproduce that beneficial trait. This only happens because there is variety in the population..

We can therefore see that, in order to survive changes to a habitat, a species requires variety in order to be able to adapt to the changes. This is because a population cannot survive a challenge for which a solution does not exist. Therefore, eugenics, which by definition tries to reduce the variety in the human population, is stupid. It is idiotic. It is species suicide. We don’t know what we will be forced to face in our future, and the more different kinds of humans there are around to face it, the better we’ll fare.

Granted, humans can use technology to invent solutions to the problems we face, but our technology is not omnipotent. Consider viruses: we are still vulnerable to deadly viruses, and only genetic variation can save the species at large from the worst offenders.

It’s one thing to acknowledge biological variation within the overall human population. Yes, some people will be predisposed to lower or higher intelligence, or running speed, or metabolism. It’s quite another to establish value judgments to the variations.

Not that anyone nowadays argues for out and out eugenics, but when people like Pat Robertson make statements like “Europe is right now in the midst of racial suicide because of the declining birth rate” the same principle applies. Human cross-breeding is the best thing we can do to increase variety and make our species stronger. Who knows what combination of genes will be best for colonizing space? Who knows what different combination of genes will be best for facing a warming planet? Ad infinitum…

Variety is good. Racial concerns go flat in the face of that.