# Eugenics **Entity class:** Concept or analytic term **Domain:** History of Science / Genetics / Reproductive Governance **Doc Type:** Historical and Ethical Concept Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition **Eugenics** is the historical project of directing human reproduction according to claims about hereditary value. It has included both coercive “negative” programs—such as forced sterilization—and “positive” proposals encouraging reproduction or donor selection among people assigned desirable traits. ## Corpus Context [[wiki/Selected Reproduction|Selected Reproduction]] names a mechanism without erasing this political history. Selection over reproductive inputs can be technically distinguished from cloning, genome editing and developmental engineering while still requiring analysis of coercion, discrimination, disability rights and institutional power. [[wiki/Pantheon S1E5 — Zero Daze|Zero Daze]] is fictional, but its source-specific reproduction and engineered biography expose the ownership problem beneath any program that treats another person's development as an instrument. ## Key Insight **Technical precision must not become historical amnesia.** ## Sources / Provenance - [National Human Genome Research Institute — Eugenics and Scientific Racism](https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Eugenics-and-Scientific-Racism) ## Relationships <!-- BEGIN HUMANIZED RELATIONSHIPS 2026-09-11 --> This entry's documented connections are expressed in its definition and related-work routes, with provenance retained in the source-linked material. <!-- END HUMANIZED RELATIONSHIPS 2026-09-11 --> - **Historical source:** [[wiki/Robert L. Sinsheimer|Robert L. Sinsheimer]] proposed a contrast between old and new eugenics in [[wiki/The Prospect for Designed Genetic Change|his 1969 essay]], and asked who would choose the qualities to be engineered. This records his argument, not a settled technical or ethical conclusion. - **Technical distinction:** [[wiki/Embryo Selection|Embryo Selection]] selects among embryos; it is not identical to editing or creating genes. ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts Glass's 1970 address is a historically significant reproductive-rights proposal, not an endorsed rule or a scientifically warranted guarantee about genotype and a child's capacities. The supplied transcription locates the passage at p. 28; the journal issue is 3966. > “In a world where each pair must be limited, on the average, to two offspring and no more, the right that must become paramount is not the right to procreate, but rather the right of every child to be born with a sound physical and mental constitution, based on a sound genotype. No parents will in that future time have the right to burden society with a malformed or a mentally incompetent child.” > **— H. Bentley Glass**, *1970 AAAS retiring presidential address; published 1971 in Science 171(3966), p. 28* *Verification Status: Unverified — supplied transcription; variant wording in scholarly reproductions. Check the Science p. 28 scan before promotion.* [[reminders/unverified/Glass Put Genotype Ahead of Reproductive Choice by H. Bentley Glass|Glass Put Genotype Ahead of Reproductive Choice by H. Bentley Glass]] > “In contrast, the new eugenics could, at least in principle, be implemented on a quite individual basis, in one generation, and subject to no existing social restrictions.” > **— Robert L. Sinsheimer**, *1969, “The Prospect of Designed Genetic Change,” Engineering and Science* [[reminders/Selection/Genetic Design Could Move from State Programs to Individual Decisions by Robert L. Sinsheimer|Genetic Design Could Move from State Programs to Individual Decisions by Robert L. Sinsheimer]] > “The horizons of the new eugenics are in principle boundless—for we should have the potential to create new genes and new qualities yet undreamed. But of course the ethical dilemma remains. What are the best qualities, and who shall choose?” > **— Robert L. Sinsheimer**, *1969, “The Prospect of Designed Genetic Change,” Engineering and Science* [[reminders/Selection/Who Chooses the Qualities of Future Humans by Robert L. Sinsheimer|Who Chooses the Qualities of Future Humans by Robert L. Sinsheimer]] From [[wiki/The Prospect for Designed Genetic Change|The Prospect for Designed Genetic Change]]: Sinsheimer contrasts older selection rhetoric with his proposed gene-level intervention; the historical terms are his. > "The old eugenics would have required a continual selection for breeding of the fit, and a culling of the unfit. The new eugenics would permit in principle the conversion of all of the unfit to the highest genetic level." > **— Robert L. Sinsheimer**, *1969, “The Prospect for Designed Genetic Change”* [[reminders/Selection/The New Eugenics Would Convert Rather Than Cull by Robert L. Sinsheimer|The New Eugenics Would Convert Rather Than Cull by Robert L. Sinsheimer]]