tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14815894.post7202617440342225390..comments2024-03-29T07:34:02.037-04:00Comments on Bayblab: The state of eugenics in the 21st centuryKamelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15548259062576527751noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14815894.post-5342725013947784552007-08-13T17:44:00.000-04:002007-08-13T17:44:00.000-04:00Nice post and excellent points. I tend to agree in...Nice post and excellent points. I tend to agree in principle with the Liberal geneticists view point - if we have the technology to avert "genetically-encoded" suffering (if there is indeed such a thing) individuals and parents should have the right to decide whether and how they use it. The more genetic information becomes available, the more this is becoming a huge issue for people. What do you if you carry gene that will torture, maim or kill your unborn child? We don't know what all the answers will be, so we have to let people make choices freely and do the best we can.<BR/><BR/>Fortunately, in this day and age, I don't think state intervention and control of reproduction is the most immediate concern in the West. Even in amnesiac North American society, we remember the consequences of Nazi eugenics and know how to recognize it when we see it.<BR/><BR/>I think the challenge our generation will face is avoiding corporation-directed eugenics. Control of technology today lies solely in the hands of large multinational corporations who want to sell whatever they can and do not answer to the common good. They will not be able to impose their will physically, as did the Nazis, but propaganda, brainwashing and misinformation are and will be the tools corporations use to control reproduction if it helps them sell products.<BR/><BR/>It's starting to happen already - look at a press release or a commercial for birth control pills or the new (<A HREF="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070811.whpv11/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/home" REL="nofollow">and totally unproven)</A> HPV vaccine <A HREF="http://www.gardasil.com/" REL="nofollow">(Gardasil)</A> to see how companies are twisting and contorting reality to sell products. Viewers are programmed to make reproductive and health decisions based on emotion rather than thought and accurate information. And with these products, the consequences of naive behavior bear not just on whose dish detergent you're buying, but reproduction, the most important of human faculties.<BR/><BR/>People need protection - not from themselves and their own decisions, but from the corporate agenda. Regulation of advertising would be a start, especially in the area of reproductive medicine but also in others - Big Mac ads have a pretty big impact on human health as well. In particular specific marketing tactics such as the use of propaganda and misinformation (actually passed on to corporate America by Fascist innovators) should be illegal. We seem to have figured out that genocide is not acceptable, but somehow the use of video communications technology to brainwash citizens is still OK?<BR/><BR/>Of course no sign that the current Canadian Conservative government will stand up for its citizens. They've already <A HREF="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070811.whpv11/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/home" REL="nofollow">committed hundreds of millions to Merck-Frosst</A> for their totally unproven HPV vaccine. Kind of like buying a train system for public transit when you know there's a good chance the engines won't work...Baymanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03436172198266062229noreply@blogger.com