"The Perfect Child"

George Neumayr points out the mainstreaming of eugenics in America. He doesn't quite get at the utter monstrosity of it, but he comes damn close:

The slogan, Every Child a Wanted Child, always gave off a eugenic chill, implying that unwanted children weren't fit for life. But it didn't quite spell out what makes a child unwanted. Were the meaning of the slogan unpackaged and given more eugenic precision, it would read: Every Child a Perfect Child.

Imperfect children aren't wanted children -- this is the logical terminus of a society obsessed with choice and control, and the culture is hurtling towards it. If you doubt this, note the growing impatience with imperfection in children, both unborn and born, that increasingly dominates the culture of reproductive choice and control. The New York Times ran a story earlier this week titled, "Ugly Children May Get Parental Short Shrift." The article doesn't even mention the shortest shrift they receive: eugenic abortion. To the extent that the numbers are known, most unborn children deemed ugly by virtue of a disability detected through prenatal screening are aborted, and research surveys have shown that many parents will choose abortion once doctors become able to diagnose nothing more than "obesity" prenatally.

You should read the whole thing, of course. I just have to wonder what people think they are doing. Do they understand that to get at the child who looks perfect in his blue blazer at prep school that they might be "weeding" out the most special human talents, gifts, and genius, hidden in the genes of the "imperfect," and mocking human posterity.