The term Eugenics was introduced by Francis Galton in 1883. It refers to the improvement of a population by selection of only its ‘best’ specimens for breeding. This has been practiced both by plant and animal breeders since ancient times. The idea of eugenics was to improve society by screening out and sterilizing people diagnosed as genetically unfit. Those with desirable genes would be given incentives to reproduce. Regardless of the reasons in support of sterilization, restricting an individual’s ability to reproduce is viewed as a violation of their constitutional rights. The science of eugenics can also be defined as a science of the well born, improving the inborn qualities of race and obtaining the better heritage of judicious breeding.
Eugenics is of two types, positive and negative:
Positive Eugenics: By encouraging desirable individuals to bear more children and also to produce genetically enhanced children i.e., give them genetic characteristics (genotypes) they ordinarily would not be born with . The positive eugenics can be increased by adopting the following measures:
- a) Encouraging early marriages: It is a general observation that highly placed persons of the society and those who have high ambitions of the future life devote best part of their youth to achieve ambitious goals. Hence, they get married at a late age. Both, biological and psychological investigations have revealed that the aged persons often lack expressive warmth for the sexual behaviour and their germplasm also lose its strength. Hence, the young persons having the best hereditary traits should be encouraged for early marriages. For this, a few laws should be formulated to avoid the delayed marriages.
- b) To fund the fit: Most of the well gifted persons in a society would like to lead a well planned and relaxed life. In order to lead a comfortable life and to avoid unnecessary difficulties in nurturing the children, they wish to have small number of children. Thus, the selected young men and women who have best eugenic value should be encouraged to have more children. H.J.Muller (1890–1967) has suggested that the persons who have best eugenic value should increase their family size. The persons who have best eugenic value besides increasing their family size can otherwise act as father to many more children, and this is possible through artificial insemination. The sperms and eggs of stupendous people should be stored for potentialc) Fitness and Education: In a society, the people should be educated about the basic ideology of wellbeing, ecology, human genetics, eugenics and sex. Hence, the children should be properly instructed about basic laws of health and they should be confident to develop a healthy, physically and mentally sound body. The children ignorant about the details of sex may do further harm to the society than others. Therefore, there is a need to have sex education to avoid unwanted behaviour which is not desirable for our country.
- d) Wastage of germplasm: By following measures, one can avoid the wastage of best type of germplasm:
- i) We should select the marriage partners wisely,
- ii) The nuns and priests, because of religious commitment do not marry. This should be avoided. By allowing these persons to marry, the wastage of the best part of germplasm can be prevented.
- e) Genetic counselling: Human being is benefited a lot through genetic counselling. The nature of mutant condition must be informed to the concerned persons. This is the duty of the genetic counselor to enlighten the affected persons. After knowing the problem, the probability of producing affected offspring can be calculated provided it is inherited in a Mendelian fashion. The ultimate judgment of taking a risk is exclusively the accountability of the person concerned.
- f) Ecological surroundings and their improvement: To improve eugenically better persons, heredity and environment have played the most important role. Therefore, every individual in society should get better food, good existing circumstances, proper education and health assistance etc., so that his or her genetic behaviour may have the best improvement. This will help in producing fertile offspring.
- g) Encouraging of genetic research: The existing knowledge on genetic diseases is not enough as we still have minute information on different human diseases. Hence, further research in the field of cytogenetics should be increased so that we can learn more and more about the man. Therefore, genetic research must be encouraged.
Negative Eugenics: Faulty germplasm from the people can be eliminated with the help of following measures:
- i) Sexual disconnection: Colour blindness, night blindness, hemophilia, etc. are some of the sex-linked diseases possessed by the defective persons and these may be regulated by dominant or recessive genes. The defective traits in the population can be checked by sexual disconnection and keeping them away and separated from the public.
- ii) Sterilization of the defective: Persons who have defective traits may be advised to go for sterilization. Through sterilization, without disturbing any of his usual functions, we can withdraw a person from his power of reproduction.
- iii) Immigration and its control: The unwanted or faulty genes of different races and nationalities may intermingle with the normal germplasm of the people during immigration. The persons with unwanted hereditary traits must notbe permitted to migrate from one place to another . Some laws should be formulated to control the immigration of those persons who have defective genetic traits.
- iv) Marriage regulation: The affluent or well placed persons (who, still, may have numerous faulty genetic characters), are more favored for marriages than those who have eugenically sound hereditary traits but have no money. Because of not having money the eugenically sound persons agree for marriage with the genetically defective people. These people fail to reach the uppermost status in the society due to lack of opportunities.
Case study
In earlier times, many children with severe cleft palate and harelip did not survive but now with modern surgery ,they live a normal life, thus in recent times the frequency of these genes is rising. To reduce such kind of increase in frequencies of undesirable genotypes, various negative measures have been suggested. Genetically defective person has to be prevented from reproduction and if the probability of giving birth to a defective child by a couple is very high, then they should go for medically induced abortion of the fetus.