What’s in a word?

Eugenics has a bad name. So much so that the Eugenics Education Society changed its name in 1989 to the Galton Institute after Sir Francis Galton who first coined the term ‘eugenics’. More recently, in 2022 it changed its name again to the Adelphi Genetics Forum in order to disassociate itself from some of Galton’s ideas. No one, it seems, wants to be associated with eugenics.

But what does the word actually mean? A term coined in the 1880s, MacKellar defines ‘eugenic developments’ as “selective strategies or decisions aimed at affecting, in manners considered to be positive, the genetic heritage of a child, a community, or humanity in general.” (p2). Or, in simpler terms, eugenics is the selection of desired heritable characteristics in humans in order to improve future generations.

I don’t remember ever hearing eugenics mentioned in church. While I have read several articles about eugenics, the only other book on the subject that I have read is G.K. Chesterton’s Eugenics and other Evils, first published over 100 years ago. But eugenics has not dropped off the scene. We live in a society that actively practices eugenics whilst never talking about it. There is therefore a desperate need for us to engage with the new eugenics and this book seeks to help Christians do just that.

A real concern

The author, Calum MacKellar, is an academic with expertise in genetic ethics. He was formerly Associate Editor of The New Bioethics, and is now Director of Research of the Scottish Council on Bioethics. He is Visiting Professor in bioethics at St Mary’s University in London and a member of a UK National Health Service Research Ethics Committee in Edinburgh. He is also an ordained elder of the Church of Scotland, and has served on its Church and Society Council.

There is a desperate need for us to engage with the new eugenics and this book seeks to help Christians do just that.

MacKellar is clearly concerned that “many Christians do not comprehend why, if given the choice, they should not be able to decide what kind of children they want. … Why not avoid bringing a child into existence with a serious disorder?” (p1). I am sure he’s right. This kind of practice is not recognised as eugenics today.

Within the general definition of eugenics, there is broadly ‘negative eugenics’, aimed at avoiding an undesired genetic heritage in a child, community or humanity in general, such as enforced sterilisation, or marriage restrictions, or selecting out undesirable embryos. And then there is ‘positive eugenics’, aimed at promoting a desired genetic heritage such as selecting desirable sperm from a sperm bank, certain forms of marriage counselling, or promoting birth rates in biologically desirable parents (p5). Once defined in this way, we can start to realise just how widespread eugenic practices and thinking are in our contemporary society.

Compulsory sterilisation

It is important to remember that eugenics didn’t always have a bad name. A century ago, eugenics was fashionable with high profile supporters in the UK, including Sir Winston Churchill, Arthur Balfour and Neville Chamberlain. The UK came close to, but in the end did not, enact compulsory sterilisation of those considered unworthy of having children.

Once defined in this way, we can start to realise just how widespread eugenic practices and thinking are in our contemporary society.

In the USA, an estimated 27 states enacted forced sterilisation laws, and by 1940, more than 35,000 men and women had been castrated or sterilised (p22). American sterilisation policies continued almost unopposed until the 1970s. Supporters of eugenics in the USA included President Theodore Rosevelt, and some 200 Protestant clergymen who refused to marry couples without a medical certificate proving that they were both mentally and physically healthy (p20).

Eugenics and the Nazis

It was the eugenic policies of Nazi Germany that gave eugenics the bad name it has today. From 1934 to 1939, some 350,000 German citizens were compulsorily sterilised by the Nazi regime because they were deemed ‘unfit’ to have children (p13). In addition, there was the euthanasia programme which enabled ‘mercy killing’ for those with a ‘life unworthy of life’.

Some 70,000 Germans were killed for these reasons (p13-14). Sadly, many German Christian clergy supported eugenic ideology, though there was strong opposition from the Catholic Church. The aim, of course, was to develop a ‘master race’. ‘Non-Aryan’ women were encouraged to have abortions, while it was a capital offence to perform an abortion on an ‘Aryan’ woman unless you could prove the child had a disorder (p14).

In addition, there was the euthanasia programme which enabled ‘mercy killing’ for those with a ‘life unworthy of life’.

Made in the image of God

After guiding us through this disturbing history, MacKellar makes a Christian case against eugenics by taking a close look at what it means to be in the image of God, and examining all the arguments made in favour of and against eugenics. He argues that the property of being in the image of God is intrinsic to being human. “Thus, the very definition of a human person is a being who reflects the image of God.” (p36). Therefore, there is a radical equality of all people, regardless of ability, age, gender, ethnicity or indeed genetic defects.

However, in our increasingly anti-Christian society, this is not how people are valued. Today in the UK, as MacKellar points out, more than 90% of foetuses diagnosed with Down’s syndrome are aborted. Some are even aborted for fully reversible disorders such as cleft lip. While these eugenic abortions may account for only 1% of all abortions in the UK, they are resulting in an effective genocide of people with certain genetic traits (p58). MacKellar also points out how this mentality instrumentalises children, viewing them as products to satisfy our own desires rather than people of inherent inestimable worth.

Eugenic decisions

The last section of the book discusses the various ways in which eugenic selection is practiced today. These include fairly obvious things like sex selection, or egg or sperm selection, or ‘saviour siblings’. But then there are less obvious procedures like genetic selection of partners, genome editing, or deciding to have more or less or no children. For example, MacKellar argues that prospective parents deciding not to have children because they are informed of the risks that the child may have a disability may well be a eugenic decision (p68). In each case, MacKellar discusses the arguments for and against and exposes the eugenic mentality behind the practice.
The question is, do we really believe that all children are equally valuable regardless of disability?

Today in the UK, as MacKellar points out, more than 90% of foetuses diagnosed with Down’s syndrome are aborted.

MacKellar, in concluding, states: “Christians are, therefore, called to welcome unconditionally, without choosing, every kind of child into existence, irrespective of their biological characteristics, even if they have very short and challenging lives of suffering.” (p180). This reminds me of Sarah Williams’ superb personal account in The Shaming of the Strong (Kingsway 2006), of carrying a severely deformed baby through to term against the advice of all the medics who pushed her to have an abortion. She felt God’s calling to mother the baby, which she did at great personal cost through its very short life. Her mentality is very much against the spirit of the age.

Prevalence of eugenics

MacKellar shows us that while eugenics may have a bad name today, eugenic thinking and practice is nevertheless very evident and prevalent across our culture. The new eugenics, however, is rooted in exactly the same ideology as the old eugenics. It is sheer hubris to suggest that we have learnt from the past and will not repeat the same practices again.

If you have never really thought about the new eugenics, you really should. This book provides a very helpful introduction and overview of the issues. I hope it gets a wide readership.

Christianity and the New Eugenics is published by Intervarsity Press (IVP) and is available from Amazon for £12.25 (inc p&p).

Tim Dieppe is Head of Public Policy at Christian Concern.