Editing Eugenics (section)

==In science fiction ==
{{see also|Speculative evolution|Evolution in fiction|Genetics in fiction}}
[[File:CLA building complex.JPG|thumb|In the movie, "''Gattaca''" also refers to the [[futuristic]] building complex that hosts the astronauts for an ongoing [[space colonization]] program.]]
The novel ''[[Brave New World]]'' by the English author [[Aldous Huxley]] (1931), is a [[Utopian and dystopian fiction|dystopian]] [[social science fiction]] novel which is set in a futuristic [[World government|World State]], whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based [[social hierarchy]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}

Various works by the author [[Robert A. Heinlein]] mention the [[Howard families|Howard Foundation]], a group which attempts to improve human longevity through [[selective breeding]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}

Among [[Frank Herbert]]'s other works, the ''[[Dune (franchise)|Dune]]'' series, starting with [[Dune (novel)|the eponymous 1965 novel]], describes selective breeding by a powerful sisterhood, the ''[[Bene Gesserit]]'', to produce a supernormal male being, the ''Kwisatz Haderach''.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Koboldt |first1=Daniel |date=29 August 2017 |title=The Science of Sci-Fi: How Science Fiction Predicted the Future of Genetics |url=https://www.outerplaces.com/science/item/16677-genetics-science-fiction-future |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180719233445/https://www.outerplaces.com/science/item/16677-genetics-science-fiction-future |archive-date=19 July 2018 |access-date=19 July 2018 |website=Outer Places}}</ref>

The [[Star Trek]] franchise features a race of genetically engineered humans which is known as "Augments", the most notable of them is [[Khan Noonien Singh]]. These "supermen" were the cause of the [[Eugenics Wars]], a dark period in Earth's fictional history, before they were deposed and exiled. They appear in many of the franchise's story arcs, most frequently, they appear as villains.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Edwards |first1=Richard |title=Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Augments, Illyrians and the Eugenics Wars |url=https://www.space.com/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-augments-illyrians-and-the-eugenics-wars |website=Space.com |date=27 June 2023 |access-date=29 May 2024}}</ref>{{efn|name=Singh|Similarly, the author [[Edwin Black]] has described potential "eugenics wars" as the worst-case outcome of eugenics.{{Page needed|date=July 2024}} In his view, this scenario would mean the return of coercive state-sponsored [[genetic discrimination]] and [[Human rights violations#Human rights violations|human rights violations]] such as the [[compulsory sterilization]] of persons with genetic defects, the [[involuntary euthanasia|killing of the institutionalized]] and, specifically, the [[racial segregation|segregation]] and [[genocide]] of [[Social interpretations of race|races]] which are considered inferior.{{sfn|Black|2003}}<p>Law professors [[George Annas]] and [[Lori Andrews]] have similarly argued that the use of these technologies could lead to such human-[[posthuman]] [[caste]] warfare.<ref name="Darnovsky Crossroads">{{cite web |last=Darnovsky |first=Marcy |title=Health and human rights leaders call for an international ban on species-altering procedures |date=2001 |url= http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=2809 |access-date=21 February 2006 |archive-date=22 November 2010 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101122090944/http://geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=2809 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Annas 2002">{{cite journal |author-link=George Annas |last1=Annas |first1=George |author2-link=Lori Andrews |last2=Andrews |first2=Lori |author3-link=Rosario Isasi |last3=Isasi |first3=Rosario |title=Protecting the endangered human: Toward an international treaty prohibiting cloning and inheritable alterations |journal=American Journal of Law & Medicine |volume=28 |date=2002 |issue=2–3 |pages=151–78 |doi=10.1017/S009885880001162X |pmid=12197461 |s2cid=233430956 |url= https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2233&context=faculty_scholarship |access-date=5 December 2021 |archive-date=16 March 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220316111620/https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2233&context=faculty_scholarship |url-status=live}}</ref>}}

<section begin=Gattaca1997/>The film ''[[Gattaca]]'' (1997) provides a fictional example of a [[dystopian]] society that uses eugenics to decide what people are capable of and their place in the world. The title alludes to the letters [[guanine|G]], [[adenine|A]], [[thymine|T]] and [[cytosine|C]], the four [[nucleobase]]s of [[DNA]], and depicts the possible consequences of [[genetic discrimination]] in the present societal framework. Relegated to the role of a cleaner owing to his genetically projected death at age 32 due to a heart condition (being told: "The only way you'll see the inside of a spaceship is if you were cleaning it"), the protagonist observes enhanced astronauts as they are demonstrating their superhuman athleticism. Although it was not a box office success, it was critically acclaimed and influenced the debate over [[human genetic engineering]] in the public consciousness.<ref name="Jabr">{{Cite news |last1=Jabr |first1=Ferris |title=Are We Too Close to Making Gattaca a Reality? |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |date=2013 |url= http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Gattaca-a-Not-So-Perfect-Specimen-Hawke-only-2799938.php |access-date=30 April 2014 |archive-date=9 December 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20191209172904/https://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Gattaca-a-Not-So-Perfect-Specimen-Hawke-only-2799938.php |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="popemcroberts">{{cite book |last1=Pope |first1=Marcia |last2=McRoberts |first2=Richard |title=Cambridge Wizard Student Guide Gattaca |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |date=2003 |isbn=0521536154}}</ref>{{efn|name=Silver|It has been cited by many [[bioethicist]]s and laypeople in support of their hesitancy about, or opposition to, eugenics and the [[genetic determinism|genetic determinist]] ideology that may frame it.<ref name="kirby">{{Cite journal |last1=Kirby |first1=D.A. |title=The New Eugenics in Cinema: Genetic Determinism and Gene Therapy in GATTACA |journal=Science Fiction Studies |volume=27 |date=2000 |pages=193–215 |doi=10.1525/sfs.27.2.0193 |url= http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/essays/gattaca.htm |access-date=8 January 2008 |author-link=David A. Kirby |archive-date=27 March 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120327205741/http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/essays/gattaca.htm |url-status=live}}</ref><p>Accordingly, [[Lee M. Silver]] stated that "''Gattaca'' is a film that all geneticists should see if for no other reason than to understand the perception of our trade held by so many of the public-at-large".<ref name="silver">{{Cite journal |last=Silver |first=Lee M. |title=Genetics Goes to Hollywood |date=1997 |volume=17 |issue=3 |doi=10.1038/ng1197-260 |author-link=Lee M. Silver |journal=[[Nature Genetics]] |pages=260–261 |s2cid=29335234}}</ref>}} As to its accuracy, its production company, [[Sony Pictures]], consulted with a [[gene therapy]] researcher and prominent critic of eugenics known to have stated that "[w]e should not step over the line that delineates treatment from enhancement",<ref>[[William French Anderson|Anderson, W. French]] (1990). "Genetics and Human Malleability." ''The Hastings Center Report,'' 20(1), 21–24. {{doi|10.2307/3562969}} p.24</ref> [[William French Anderson|W. French Anderson]], to ensure that the portrayal of science was realistic. Disputing their success in this mission, Philim Yam of ''[[Scientific American]]'' called the film "science bashing" and ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'s'' Kevin Davies called it a "surprisingly pedestrian affair", while [[Molecular biology|molecular biologist]] [[Lee M. Silver|Lee Silver]] described its extreme [[genetic determinism|determinism]] as "a [[straw man]]".<ref>{{cite news |last=Zimmer |first=Carl |date=November 10, 2008 |title=Now: The Rest of the Genome |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/science/11gene.html?pagewanted=all |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref><ref name="Kirby20002">{{cite journal |last=Kirby |first=David A. |date=July 2000 |title=The New Eugenics in Cinema: Genetic Determinism and Gene Therapy in "GATTACA" |journal=Science Fiction Studies |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=193–215 |doi=10.1525/sfs.27.2.0193 |jstor=4240876}}</ref>

In his 2018 book ''[[Blueprint (Plomin book)|Blueprint]]'', the [[behavioral geneticist]] [[Robert Plomin]] writes that while ''Gattaca'' warned of the dangers of genetic information being used by a totalitarian state, genetic testing could also favor better [[meritocracy]] in democratic societies which already administer a variety of [[standardized test]]s to select people for education and employment. He suggests that [[polygenic scores]] might supplement testing in a manner that is essentially free of biases.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Plomin |first=Robert |author-link = Robert Plomin|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Vrt2DwAAQBAJ&q=blueprint%20robert%20plomin%20%22gattaca%22&pg=PA180 |title=Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are |date=13 November 2018 |publisher=[[MIT Press]] |isbn=9780262039161 |pages=180–181 |access-date=31 October 2020 |archive-date=15 May 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220515022228/https://books.google.com/books?id=Vrt2DwAAQBAJ&q=blueprint+robert+plomin+%22gattaca%22&pg=PA180 |url-status=live}}</ref>