My middle name is Eugene. I love it. I am in love with my middle name. Studying me would be studying Eugenics, right? Wrong. Eugenics is actually a movement that advocates improving the genetic composition of a population. You might have seen this idea somewhere else, maybe Nazi Germany? You could imagine my dismay as I went from hoping there was a whole science devoted to studying me to realizing that the practice really isn't all that great.
Not to fret though, eugenics isn't all bad. Essentially, we all-well, not the asexuals amongst us-subconsciously carry out our own Eugenic practices by being physically attracted to people. Not to mention the people who decide not to procreate because they fear passing on terrible hereditary diseases. In fact, I'll even tie in my favorite writer Kurt here and mention his book "Galapagos". In the novel, one of the main characters might have an awful untreatable mysterious genetic disorder and, even when the future of the entire human population is dependent, refuses to procreate on the grounds that he might pass on this disease. With great Vonnegutian humor, Kurt goes on to explain how the child who would be the founding member of the "new" human population--who was conceived before the human population was in peril from two humans with no hereditary diseases--was born with a fur coat much like a seal or sea lion. How's that for Eugenics?
Here, read the Wikipedia article on the word:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics#United_States
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