Society's Divisions Illuminated

Is eugenics the creation of a "harmonious entity" or the loss of diversity?

Louisiana State Rep John LaBruzzo (R) has suggested that the lower class partake in voluntary sterilization..but will this lead to more distinction between the lower and upper classes?

Tough economic times are widening the gap between social classes, which has the potential to create more prejudice between the lower and upper classes. Louisiana State Representative John LaBruzzo (R) is helping to widen this gap more quickly by offering $1,000 to lower class women if they get sterilized. The theory behind this is that poverty stricken people tend to have more unplanned pregnancies; this system would also apparently help break the cycle of generational poverty. LaBruzzo’s plan includes giving tax breaks to college educated couples who decide to have children. How completely unbiased of LaBruzzo.

If LaBruzzo seriously wants to cut back on the number of unplanned pregnancies, why not hand out free birth control? Being paid a thousand dollars to permanently sterilize yourself does not sound like a fair bargain to me. Between paying for electricity, home heating, and food bills, $1000 will not get the average family particularly far, and this is even more true for lower class families. Essentially, this plan weeds out the poor while increasing the amount of affluent people in American society.

Already the difference money can make when dealing with pregnancy is apparent. So called “designer babies” are becoming increasingly popular in the U.S. Due to the high cost, only the wealthy can afford this new technology. The child’s genetic makeup is chosen for it, so that the best possible combination of the parent’s genes will result and appear in the child., thereby making the elite have even more power. As technology advances, more human intervention will be possible in regards to conception.

While the rich may be able to afford to create better babies, the poor will jump at the chance to obtain $1,000. If the government approves the State Representative’s plan, somewhat of a selective culling of the lower class. The dictionary defines eugenics as being “the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, esp. by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics) or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics).” In this case, the inheritable, undesirable trait would be a lack of money, while LaBruzzo proposes positive eugenics for those in society with more status, such as those who have graduated from college.

What worries me the most is not that people may become more intelligent due to being genetically altered, but the separation between the rich and the poor that designer babies and voluntary sterilization are sure to create. Who is to say that poverty stricken people are not necessarily as intelligent as those of a high economic status? Yes, poverty can be inheritable, but prejudice is almost always passed down from one generation to the next. LaBruzzo’s proposal would only make the poor seem more “inferior,” when those not as fortunate as others have the same rights as those who are luckier. $1,000 may drive desperate poor to voluntarily sterilize themselves, but LaBruzzo’s plan and its implications are not worth any amount of money.