I think the Eugenecists got a bum rap; they weren't all evil Nazis. Some were evil Socialists or evil Communists or evil Social Democrats. Some, whisper who dare, may not have been especially evil at all.

Second, screening makes couples who both have the same deleterious recessive allele more willing to bear children, since they know they can abort a homozygotic recessive fetus. She actually has some decent anecdotal data on the second point.

Questions: Isn't aborting a homozygotic recessive fetus eugenic? Hasn't the percentage of children born with Down Syndrome gone down steadily in the last 30 years? Isn't this eugenics? I'm not against it but don't we need to talk straight instead of PC?

Questions: Isn't aborting a homozygotic recessive fetus eugenic? Hasn't the percentage of children born with Down Syndrome gone down steadily in the last 30 years? Isn't this eugenics? I'm not against it but don't we need to talk straight instead of PC?

depends on how you define eugenic. the fitness of DS suffers is VERY low (most males seem to be sterile). additionally, DS seems to be due to de novo mutations each generation, so it isn't changing the long term genetic load....

bioIgnoramus: Agreed---there's nothing all that bad about "good genes" (aka eugenics) per se. Who can be against more good things, whether good meals at a restaurant or good manners in a society or good genes in a population?

It's the combination of eugenic ideas + guv'mint mandates that leads to the bad outcomes most folks worry about. Well, that plus the fact that what is "the good" is always a matter for legitimate debate, whether regarding meals or manners or, well, genes.....

But Cowan is a clever enough rhetorician to avoid that issue entirely---she doesn't fight every battle, just the ones that are easy to win. A smart approach, given her intended audience....

Herrick wrote: "It's the combination of eugenic ideas + guv'mint mandates that leads to the bad outcomes most folks worry about."

:laugh: I'd argue that it's the combination of *anything* and government mandates that leads to the bad outcomes most folks worry about.

PhilB