Debunking Eugenics: What Genetics Actually Tells Us

    Eugenics has long tried to present itself as science, using genetic language to justify harmful ideas about human value and “fitness.” Historically, eugenic movements claimed that complex traits like intelligence, behavior, and morality were controlled by single genes and could be selectively bred to “improve” society. These claims led to forced sterilizations, discriminatory laws, and genocide. Modern genetics has since shown that these ideas were not grounded in evidence but in social prejudice, with early eugenicists misusing limited biological knowledge to legitimize inequality

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    Contemporary genetic research directly contradicts the core assumptions of eugenics. Most human traits are polygenic, meaning they are influenced by many genes, and are heavily shaped by environmental factors such as nutrition, education, and access to healthcare. The Human Genome Project demonstrated that humans are overwhelmingly genetically similar, with variation occurring gradually across populations rather than in discrete biological groups. There is no scientific basis for ranking individuals or populations by genetic “quality,” nor is there a single gene that determines intelligence, behavior, or worth.

    The persistence of eugenic thinking today reflects not scientific debate but the continued misuse of genetic information. When genetics is stripped of context, it can be twisted into arguments about superiority or exclusion, despite clear evidence to the contrary. In reality, the goal of genetics is understanding and improving health, not categorizing people by value. Science has decisively rejected eugenics by revealing human biology to be complex, interconnected, and incompatible with simplistic hierarchies. forgot to publish this, had it opened for a few days...

References

National Human Genome Research Institute. (n.d.). Eugenics and scientific racism. https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Eugenics-and-Scientific-Racism

Tishkoff, S. A., & Kidd, K. K. (2004). Implications of biogeography of human populations for “race” and medicine. Nature Genetics, 36(11.Suppl), S21–S27. https://www.nature.com/articles/ng1438