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| Re: Eugenics by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 12/21/2011, 9:31pm PST | ||||
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| Funny you mention that, I have a piece from a story I wrote about 12 years ago.
"And a relatively stupid method, like using abortion as a method of birth control, is also an example of not thinking." "What do you think of the Rhythm method? And are you opposed to abortion?" If he was, I wanted to hear it since I hadn't really heard any good opinions to decide either way. "As for your first question, George, let me just say I find it unreliable. As to your second question, whether I support or oppose abortion, the answer is probably both, same as everyone else, but not for the reasons almost anyone else does. This subject is extremely charged with emotion and many people get upset over it. My opinion will almost certainly not be the same as yours and you probably will not agree with mine. Do you want my opinion?" "Yes, I do." "Very well. First, there is one type of abortion I do not approve of for any reason. Would you like to guess what it is?" "I dunno. Sex selection?" "No. Any abortion forced on a woman without her consent if she is capable of acting on her own behalf. Irregardless of the reason for doing so, there is no possible excuse for such a thing." "Wait a minute, I remember there being a movie where a woman went into a coma while she was pregnant, and her husband or boyfriend, I forget which, decided to have an abortion given to her because she might die. I thought he was right, too." "Very good point, you might think I'm wrong and are trying to punch holes in my logic. Remember what I said, ‘if she is capable of acting on her own behalf.' In this case some people would say that this excludes minors or the retarded or those incapable of making choices. I disagree with that, it sounds too much like a eugenics program, or an attempt to turn some classes of people into sub-humans who have no rights." "Wait a minute." I got out my electronic dictionary. "How do you spell ‘eugenics'?" He smiled as he told me, and I looked it up. "‘Science of improving the quality of offspring, especially by the careful selection of parents; the process of improving offspring.' Why is this so bad?" "I meant the term in a much more pejorative sense than the dictionary uses; a dictionary is only as good as the references the lexicographers decide to use. For example, over there in my bookshelf is my unabridged dictionary, and you will find it contains all of the swear words in it, which yours does not. A few years ago one publisher decided to include them, after deciding not to in the edition released two years before. For the first time, obscenities are considered to be common enough to include them in a dictionary. So now, you can make sure when you swear at someone, you pronounce the word correctly! "Anyway, check that term ‘by the careful selection of parents'. Why is that plural? I mean, is it wrong if you, or Lynn, had decided to pick someone else instead of each other, because they felt the other person would be a better parent to their potential offspring?" "No." "Meaning that if you each made your own decision and chose someone on that basis who was willing to go along, then there is no problem then, correct?" "Yes." "Fine. Now, that term ‘selection of parents'. In this case, what I mean by a ‘eugenics' program is where someone else makes a decision about the type of children other people might have. Either because they don't like the possible outcome which results from someone else's having children, or they want to use other people as the equivalent of breeding animals. Understand?" "Yes." "This means those people are essentially property of whoever is doing this. I believe that human beings are not property. Even convicted criminals have human rights, curtailed to the extent necessary to prevent them from continuing to practice their trade on others, up to and including their execution. If human beings are not property, then such actions are wrong without their consent, freely given without coercion. Understand?" "Yes." - Dr. Hugo Sign and George Green in Paul Robinson's The Gatekeeper: The Gate Contracts |
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