TAPESTRY (tapestry) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2008-09-07 12:40:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | ! [1979-09] september, ! group threads, antonin dolohov, jacqueline macnair (née wilkes) |
Eugenics Panel Discussion; backdated to Saturday (9/06)
6 September 1979
Comments to Eugenics Panel by Jacqueline L. Wilkes (Representing the Foundation for Promotion of Wizarding Society and Culture)
From earliest recorded history, the idea of selective marriage and breeding to maximize the occurrence of positive traits in offspring and minimize the occurrence of negative traits has been a widespread and persistent one. Later formalized as a school of thought under the name "Eugenics," almost every civilised society has at some point or another engaged in a formal or informal expression of this philosophy. From the ancient Spartans who tested newborn infants for physical infirmity and sentenced those who failed to meet their standards for a good warrior or wife to death by exposure, to Plato's Republic, where marriages were chosen by a lottery controlled by the ruling counsel who would use it as a mechanism for pairing together citizens with desirable qualities in order to produce more of the same, to Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire and carrying on to today, where aristocratic families who have proven their worth through strength on the battlefield, cunning and wise decision making in the political arena, and economic fortitude in the production and accumulation of wealth, continue to maximize these traits by choosing to marry those from families who have displayed similar aptitude
It is important here for me to draw a distinction between the two dominant schools of thought in the theory and practice of Eugenics. Those that seek to put this theory into practice fall into one of two categories: Positive and Negative Eugenics. Negative Eugenics are systems such as those instituted by the Spartans and by Germany under the reign of the Muggle dictator Mr. Hitler, who seek to weed out what they term "undesirable" traits through the use of violence and sterilization of those who possess them. It should be noted that these systems often deem traits undesirable for arbitrary or racist reasons, and can not be commended for their actions. Often, these societies would eliminate what a rational person would deem positive traits in favour of more dubiously acclaimed traits, such as Mr. Hitler attempting to eradicate an entire race based on nothing more than his own twisted racial beliefs while not accounting for intelligence, strength, physical fortitude, or any other of the number of positive traits that are possessed by the Muggle Jewish race. Conversely, Positive Eugenics seeks to maximize the occurrence of positive traits through means of selective breeding and marriage, by encouraging those who possess positive traits to concentrate them in bloodlines by marrying and producing offspring with others who hold these traits. No violence or arbitrary discrimination is every accepted by those who believe in systems of Positive Eugenics, nor can they be easily twisted to support such actions. It is because of these facts that I am both able and proud to say that I am a strong supporter and proponent of Positive Eugenics, without fear of reasonable attack or defamation.
As a person blessed with Magical ability, I know the benefits that possessing such a trait has bestowed upon me and those around me. It is impossible for anyone to say with conviction and reason that Magical ability does not confer significant advantages for survival and prosperity on those who possess it, and so it is an unequivocally positive and superior trait. Does it not stand to reason then that it is in the best interest of our most unique and superior society to seek to maximize it's occurance in future generations? Would we not be shirking our duty as carriers of this trait and selfishly robbing our children of their chance to be so blessed if we reckless risked its disappeance from our future? Those that seek to continue bloodlines known to create Magical offspring should be commended, not derided as racists and murderers. This is not an issue of race any more than this is an issue of ethics. There is no ethical alternative to the fore-mentioned path: either we are seeking to endeavor to the best of our ability to bestow superior traits unto our children, or we are recklessly gamboling with the future of our offspring and our society as a whole. We can not be dissuaded with arguments based on statistical anomalies or emotions or fairness. What is fair and just is for our society, our culture, our very species to continue. What is fair and just is for us to do everything within our power to ensure that it continues. If we do not, then may we be derided as racists and murderers, for we have been racist against our own, and we have murdered our own kind.
Thank you.
In carrying out my duties as a Healer, I have often been asked to provide counselling for couples who have sought to have children and, through illness or defect or some unknown biological agent, have failed to carry their children to term. I have been asked whether such things are the will of some uncaring, unsympathetic God, or simply the designs of nature, whose rigours overcame whatever physical weaknesses the mother-to-be may have possessed. And, in recent times, I have been asked more times than I like whether the Squib phenomenon, the Muggleborn phenomenon, are blood-related.
There is much yet that we still do not know about genetics, about the carrying of certain things from parent to child. One hundred years ago, certain genetic defects were not considered to be genetic traits; they were weaknesses, certainly, but physicians did not connect the existence of a disorder in the parent to the birth of an afflicted child. So too is there much we do not know about what causes a Squib to be born a Squib, what causes magic to awaken in a Muggleborn, if that is indeed what happens in those cases. We have only the proof that we can see that magic is carried through the family line, if indeed it is proof and not conjecture. Correlation does not always necessitate causality, and it would be foolish to assume that what we see is the only possible answer to a question that has plagued wizarding society since the days of the Founders.
This is not to say that breeding for magic is a pointless, foolish exercise; certainly keeping to the old blood has benefited the pureblood families of Britain, that can be seen with ease. The more instances of a trait in any given individual's lineage, the more chances there are that the individual will breed offspring with the desired trait. This much can be seen in livestock, in purebred pets such as the cats and dogs whose pedigrees we hold in such high regard. And while humans, whether Muggle or magical, are naturally above animals in regards to our self-awareness and cultural progress, we cannot take the stance that, simply because we can conceptualise and rationalise rather than act upon pure instinct, we are somehow above the laws of nature. Breeding is breeding, whether in animal or human, and it is simply to make a point that I draw the parallels.
The fact of the matter remains that there is no practical difference between the blood of a pureblood and the blood of a Muggleborn – at least, no practical difference that we have as yet been able to discern. The unfortunate reality is that we are far from perfect, and we have yet to reach the extent of our potential medical knowledge; at this point in time, it is impossible to say which view is correct. Is there some difference in the makeup of blood between purebloods and Muggleborns? Or is this belief nothing more than a relic of days past, when our medical and scientific knowledge consisted of little more than the evidence we could see with our own eyes?
It is too soon to tell with any certainty, ladies and gentlemen, whether magic is, indeed, something that can be selected for in breeding. More research is required, and I do intend to conduct that reseach, when the political climate is one that is more beneficial to such studies. But for today, I must assure you that there is no known correlation between bloodlines and magical ability.