The proponents of the eugenics movement wanted to sterilize people whom they believed to have bad genes so that they did not pass on these genes to their offspring.
They were absolute fools.
Eugenics is based in evolutionary theory. As anyone who’s studied evolutionary theory knows, evolution is driven by mutation. The mutant genes would be seen by these people as being bad genes, when they are the reason for all the richness and variety of life.
Someone once wrote on the Internet that the problem with the world is that the freaks don’t know their place. The freak is a mutation. Which means that it is the place of the freak to advance the whole process.
In human society, it is the people who think in original ways who contribute original thought, original inventions and everything else that is original. These people would be regarded by many as freaks or worse. But it is to these people that we owe everything that we have.
So there are people who think that people with mental illness should not reproduce. I’ve known a number of highly effective – even great - people who were raised by parents who had mental illness. If their parents had listened to people with such beliefs, these great people would not have been born. That someone has mental illness does not mean that their children will have mental illness. My ex-wife’s mother was mentally ill; my ex-wife was not.
An interesting take on this is found in the movie Gattaga. In it, a brother with bad genes outperformed a brother with good genes through determined effort. Choice trumps genetics; and even people with bad genes can accomplish impressive things and contribute to the world.
I’ve known many people who were nothing like their parents. This worked both for the better and for the worse. I had a girlfriend raised by a mother with bad genes who herself was very beautiful and very intelligent. My daughter was very happy as a child when I as a child was very unhappy. My brother and I come from the same family, but we are very different from one another.
When faced with cruel beliefs such as the above, one may very well wonder why one would want to contribute to humanity if it can have such beliefs. The answer is that cruel beliefs can be refuted, and people who would otherwise be attracted to them can be steered away from them through reasoned argument. People are neither good nor bad. People are beings capable of choice. And anything capable of choice is capable of both right choices and wrong choices.
With eugenics, we see a colossal stupidity. There are genes that are thought to be bad that are in fact good and that lead to original contributions. There are conditions that do not get passed down to the children. And there is also a major role of choice that people exercise over their lives, whatever their genetics happens to be.
When a woman on the Internet wanted me, someone said, “Do you want to do that to the gene pool?” My daughter has the best genetics of anyone I’ve ever known. She is smart, she is beautiful and she is a sweetheart. If I had listened to these people, she would have never been born. And now there is in the world a wonderful little person who is also happy and healthy in every way.
Not many people are into eugenics now; but there are many who think that people with mental illness should not have children. Once again, I’ve known any number of people from such backgrounds who became excellent individuals. That a parent has a problem does not mean that the child will have the same problem. In many cases in such situations the child will be motivated to provide solutions. And these children stand to become major contributors to the world.