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ANALYSIS: NIH eugenics project a flashback to Nazi research
CHICAGO (BP)--A new age of tax-funded eugenics has just officially begun. On April 29 Medical News Today announced that Case Law School in Cleveland was receiving $773,000 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to “develop guidelines for the use of human subjects in what could be the next frontier in medical technology -- genetic enhancement."
Genetic research has in the past focused principally upon developing therapies for congenital illnesses (the heart disease which afflicts my son, for instance). This new project will develop guidelines for genetic research aimed at somehow enhancing healthy people.
It's worthwhile when thinking about these sorts of things to take a look backward and, in the matter of genetic engineering, I clearly recall reading hysterical Wall Street Journal features about genetic engineering when I was in college 3-decades ago. Not only have the doomsday scenarios then envisaged never materialized, many of the genetic therapies which were the goal of that (then) new field are only now coming to fruition. What is more, there is a great deal of work to be done before therapies will become available for still a great many diseases.
Inevitably, though, man's restless intelligence begins to search for ways to make things better. I can think of no objective reason why genetic "enhancement" should be regarded as intrinsically undesirable. Suppose, for example, that a cheap treatment became available which strengthened tooth enamel, thus driving down the need for dental care. Or which inhibited the growth and spread of cancer cells? Would that necessarily be a bad thing?
Only if you believe it is an impertinence to tinker with that which God made perfect, in His own image — a conceit that makes a lousy basis for public policy.
Which is not to suggest that such things should not be undertaken with extreme care, without reflection. This program aims to assure that enhancements do proceed with great care and reflection. A good thing, no?
As for likening it to the sadism and perversion of nazi medical research ... that's just foul and dishonest.
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