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Argumentative Essay On Eugenics And Religion

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Eugenics and Religion By oxforddictionary.com, Eugenics is defined as “the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics. Developed largely by Francis Galton as a method of improving the human race, it fell into disfavor only after the perversion of its doctrines by the Nazi’s.” Eugenics and religion have been dealing with each other since the early to mid-1900’s. Starting in 1924 Adolf Hitler began to follow the United States and their eugenics advancements. The form of eugenics that Hitler executed was sterilization of those who were of no value to him. Sterilizations in Germany began to reach numbers of five thousand people per month in 1934 (“History of Eugenics”). After the world caught wind of Hitler’s actions of sterilization, eugenics quickly got the bad …show more content…

This connotation towards eugenics is common throughout religion today. Today we have the ability to have pre-natal testing preformed to test if children have certain disabilities such as Down syndrome. According to writer Ross Douthat of The New York Times, “90% of cases that result in a positive Down syndrome test leads to abortion.” This would obviously cause an uproar within certain religious communities that are against abortion. These communities also need to realize that the ability of gene therapy can be used for good such as: the ability to get rid of Down syndrome and other illnesses. The advancements in technology will only continue to increase allowing a vast variety of options in eugenics. Although religious communities will always debate over the ethics and beliefs with the science of gene therapy—these communities should consider the enhancements of the quality of lives that can be changed with

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