Genetic Cleansing and the Corruption of Science Through Political Redefinition

Slate’s Will Saletan—a favorite of mine even though we often disagree because he is a very good writer and unfailingly honest in his reportage—is onto the story of the baby girl born in the UK who was selected in—as her siblings were destroyed—because she did not have a gene that can cause adult onset breast cancer. From his column “Eugenics Euphemisms:”

It’s happy news. But let’s take a closer look at the announcement, starting with the test “before conception.” This baby was tested as an embryo in a dish. She was one of 11 such embryos made by injecting drugs in the mother to stimulate production of excess eggs, which were then fertilized with the father’s sperm. Six of the embryos had the gene for breast cancer. Three more had “other abnormalities.” All nine were “discarded.” The other two were implanted, and one became this baby. In sum, at least six human embryos were made and then thrown away because they failed a test.

Saletan then illustrates how science is being corrupted (my word) via redefining terms to make us feel okay with the way we now instrumentalize nascent human life because, well, we want what we want:

We now call such tests “preconception.” This is the next step in our gradual devaluation of embryos. First, we said IVF embryos weren’t pregnancies. That’s technically correct: Pregnancy begins when the embryo implants in the womb. Then we called early embryos “pre-embryos” so we could dismantle them to get stem cells. That was technically incorrect, but we did it because it made us feel better. Now we’re adjusting the word conception. Henceforth, testing of IVF embryos to decide which will live or die is preconception. Don’t fret about the six eggs we fertilized, rejected, and flushed in selecting this baby. They were never really conceived. In fact, they weren’t embryos. According to Serhal, each was just “an affected cluster of cells.”

And the slavering media—Saletan being a rare exception—go right along because all of this is part of the coup de culture. (This particular episode mixes utilitarianism and hedonism, by which I mean believing we have the right to fulfill every desire, including both having children and the children we want.)

Saletan also catches the enormity of it all:

“The lasting legacy is the eradication of the transmission of this form of cancer that has blighted these families for generations.” Lasting. Legacy. Eradication. Families. Generations. We’re no longer talking about protecting an individual. We’re talking about cleansing families forever. “We are eliminating the gene from our line,” says the happy mother. Serhal agrees: “We are eradicating it from the whole family tree.” From the standpoint of efficiency, this is wonderful. But efficiency and collective cleansing are the core principles of eugenics.

And what if science discovers other genes that lead eventually to disease—opt them out too? And what of the unintended consequences? Genes we seek to eradicate might play other beneficial roles. Besides, if anyone thinks this human manipulation will be restricted to preventing disease, I have a beautiful orange bridge that spans the Golden Gate that I’d be happy to sell you. Think of all the tolls you will be able to collect.