The Future of Eugenics. Eugenics, although based on the science of genetics, is not itself a sciences, for it must above all concern itself with social values, with the question: Whither mankind? Perhaps general Agreement could be had that freedom from gross physical or mental defects and the the freedom from gross physical or mental defects and the possession of sound health, high intelligence, general adaptability, and mobility of sprier are the major goals toward which eugenics should aim; perhaps even that diversity of nature is better than uniformity of type. But hour far ought selective reproduction to inters with human freedoms: Genetically, as in other respects, "there is so much bad in the best of us and so much good in the worst of us" that it is hared to asses the worth of the manifest hereditary characteristics of a person; and the numerous hidden recessive genes or genes of low penetrance make it quit impossible. Nor can on determine to what extent a person's manifest characteristics a the product of environment, particularly for this qualities what eugenics' major concern: con health, high intelligence, and the like. The Jukes and Kallikaks were horrible examples of degenerate humanity, but what might they have been in a better world: Were their alcoholism, their crime and their vice inescapable products of their genes? It seems very doubtful. Only the experiment of putting them from earliest infancy in to an optimum environment could possible yield and answer. It is easier to define the essentials of a optimum environment--not forgetting that it need not be the same for everyone--than to modify gene frequencies by wise selection. Once mankind has produced an approximation of that optimum environment, the eugenic task will be simpler. In fact, that natural selection exerted by such an environment may make eugenics quite unnecessary. See also Birth Control; Genetics. -H. Bentley Glass —————————————————————————————————— The words above are written in the Colliers Encyclopedia in Volume 9 on page 387, copyright 1963, Chief Editor, Louis Shores Ph.D., published by Crowell Colliers Publishing Company.
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