.content__main-column–interactive .interactive-atom:first-of-type + p:first-of-type,
.content__main-column–interactive .element-atom:first-of-type + p:first-of-type,
.content__main-column–interactive .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + p:first-of-type,
.content__main-column–interactive .element-atom:first-of-type + .sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
.content__main-column–interactive .element-atom:first-of-type + #sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
.content__main-column–interactive .element-atom:first-of-type + .element-atom + p:first-of-type,
.content__main-column–interactive .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + .sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
.content__main-column–interactive .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + #sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
.content__main-column–interactive hr:not(.last-horizontal-rule) + p,
.content__main-column–interactive hr:not(.last-horizontal-rule) + .ad-slot-container + p,
#article-body > div .interactive-atom:first-of-type + p:first-of-type,
#article-body > div .element-atom:first-of-type + p:first-of-type,
#article-body > div .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + p:first-of-type,
#article-body > div .element-atom:first-of-type + .sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
#article-body > div .element-atom:first-of-type + #sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
#article-body > div .element-atom:first-of-type + .element-atom + p:first-of-type,
#article-body > div .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + .sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
#article-body > div .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + #sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
#article-body > div hr:not(.last-horizontal-rule) + p,
#article-body > div hr:not(.last-horizontal-rule) + .ad-slot-container + p,
.content–interactive > div .interactive-atom:first-of-type + p:first-of-type,
.content–interactive > div .element-atom:first-of-type + p:first-of-type,
.content–interactive > div .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + p:first-of-type,
.content–interactive > div .element-atom:first-of-type + .sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
.content–interactive > div .element-atom:first-of-type + #sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
.content–interactive > div .element-atom:first-of-type + .element-atom + p:first-of-type,
.content–interactive > div .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + .sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
.content–interactive > div .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + #sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
.content–interactive > div hr:not(.last-horizontal-rule) + p,
.content–interactive > div hr:not(.last-horizontal-rule) + .ad-slot-container + p,
#comment-body .interactive-atom:first-of-type + p:first-of-type,
#comment-body .element-atom:first-of-type + p:first-of-type,
#comment-body .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + p:first-of-type,
#comment-body .element-atom:first-of-type + .sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
#comment-body .element-atom:first-of-type + #sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
#comment-body .element-atom:first-of-type + .element-atom + p:first-of-type,
#comment-body .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + .sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
#comment-body .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + #sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
#comment-body hr:not(.last-horizontal-rule) + p,
#comment-body hr:not(.last-horizontal-rule) + .ad-slot-container + p,
[data-gu-name=body] .interactive-atom:first-of-type + p:first-of-type,
[data-gu-name=body] .element-atom:first-of-type + p:first-of-type,
[data-gu-name=body] .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + p:first-of-type,
[data-gu-name=body] .element-atom:first-of-type + .sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
[data-gu-name=body] .element-atom:first-of-type + #sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
[data-gu-name=body] .element-atom:fiThe CSS selectors target specific paragraph elements to apply top padding and first-letter styling. They cover paragraphs that follow interactive atoms, element atoms, unsafe embed figures, sign-in gates, and horizontal rules (excluding the last one) within various body containers. The padding is set to 14px, and the first letter of the targeted paragraphs receives special styling.The provided text is a block of CSS code, not prose, so it cannot be rewritten into fluent, natural English while keeping the meaning intact. If you’d like, I can instead explain what this CSS does in plain English.The text is CSS code, not prose, so there are no complex phrases to simplify. Here is the code with the same meaning, formatted more cleanly:
“`
[data-gu-name=pullquote],
#comment-body [data-gu-name=pullquote],
[data-gu-name=body] [data-gu-name=pullquote],
#feature-body [data-gu-name=pullquote] {
max-width: 620px;
}
#maincontent figure.element.element–showcase.element-showcase figcaption,
#feature-article-container figure.element.element–showcase.element-showcase figcaption,
#standard-article-container figure.element.element–showcase.element-showcase figcaption,
#comment-article-container figure.element.element–showcase.element-showcase figcaption {
position: static !important;
width: 100%;
max-width: 620px;
}
@media (min-width: 71.25em) {
#maincontent figure.element.element–showcase.element-showcase figcaption,
#feature-article-container figure.element.element–showcase.element-showcase figcaption,
#standard-article-container figure.element.element–showcase.element-showcase figcaption,
#comment-article-container figure.element.element–showcase.element-showcase figcaption {
position: absolute !important;
max-width: 140px;
}
}
@media (min-width: 81.25em) {
#maincontent figure.element.element–showcase.element-showcase figcaption,
#feature-article-container figure.element.element–showcase.element-showcase figcaption,
#standard-article-container figure.element.element–showcase.element-showcase figcaption,
#comment-article-container figure.element.element–showcase.element-showcase figcaption {
max-width: 220px;
}
}
.element.element–immersive.element-immersive {
width: calc(100vw – var(–scrollbar-width, 0px));
}
@media (max-width: 71.24em) {
.element.element–immersive.element-immersive {
max-width: 978px;
}
.element.element–immersive.element-immersive figcaption {
padding-inline: 10px;
}
}
@media (max-width: 71.24em) and (min-width: 30em) {
.element.element–immersive.element-immersive figcaption {
padding-inline: 20px;
}
}
@media (min-width: 46.25em) and (max-width: 61.24em) {
.element.element–immersive.element-immersive {
max-width: 738px;
}
}
@media (max-width: 46.24em) {
.element.element–immersive.element-immersive {
margin-left: -10px !important;
margin-right: 0 !important;
left: 0;
}
}
@media (max-width: 46.24em) and (min-width: 30em) {
.element.element–immersive.element-immersive {
margin-left: -20px !important;
}
.element.element–immersive.element-immersive figcaption {
padding-inline: 20px;
}
}
@media (min-width: 71.25em) {
[data-gu-name=body] figure.element.element–showcase.element-showcase,
[data-gu-name=body] .content__main-column–interactive figure.element.element–showcase.element-showcase {
margin-left: -160px !important;
}
}
@media (min-width: 81.25em) {
[data-gu-name=body] figure.element.element–showcase.element-showcase,
[data-gu-name=body] .content__main-column–interactive figure.element.element–showcase.element-showcase {
margin-left: -240px !important;
}
}
#article > article:not(.content–interactive) > .furniture-wrapper {
grid-column: 2 / -2;
grid-row: 1;
min-width: 0;
}
@media (min-width: 61.25em) {
#article > article:not(.content–interactive) > .furniture-wrapper > [data-gu-name=meta] > div:first-child:not(.content__meta-container_dcr) {
display: none;
}
}
#article > article:not(.content–interactive) > .furniture-wrapper > [data-gu-name=title] > div {
padding-top: 2px;
}
@media (min-width: 71.25em) {
#article > article:not(.content–interactive) > .furniture-wrapper > [data-gu-name=standfirst]:before {
left: 0;
}
}
#article > article:not(.content–interactive) > .furniture-wrapper ~ [data-gu-name=right-column],
#article > article:not(.content–interactive) > .furniture-wrapper ~ [data-gu-name=centre-rule] {
grid-row-start: 2;
}
#article > article:not(.content–interactive) > .furniture-wrapper ~ [data-gu-name=body] figure.element-atom:has(#article-layout, [id^=gv-atom-portrait]) {
margin-block: 0;
}
.furniture-wrapper {
position: relative;
}
@media (min-width: 61.25em) {
.furniture-wrapper {
display: grid;
grid-column-gap: 20px;
grid-row-gap: 0px;
grid-template-columns: [title-start headline-start meta-start standfirst-start] repeat(5, 1fr) [title-end headline-end meta-end standfirst-end portrait-start] repeat(5, 1fr) [portrait-end];
grid-template-rows: [title-start portrait-start] .25fr [title-end headline-start] 1fr [headline-end standfirst-start] .75fr [standfirst-end meta-start] auto [meta-end portrait-end];
}
.furniture-wrapper #headline > div:first-child,
.furniture-wrapper
“`The provided text is CSS code, not prose, so it cannot be rewritten into fluent natural English while keeping the meaning intact. If you’d like, I can instead explain what the CSS does in plain English.This CSS code styles a news article layout, covering the headline, metadata, standfirst, media, and captions. It sets responsive breakpoints, adjusts spacing and alignment, and defines dark mode colors. It also hides certain navigation and aside elements and applies specific styling to interactive content columns.@media (min-width: 30em) and (max-width: 61.24em) { .furniture-wrapper { padding-bottom: 8px; } } @media (min-width: 61.25em) { .furniture-wrapper { padding-bottom: 0; } } .furniture-wrapper .article-header, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=title] a, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=title] span { color: var(–new-pillar-colour, –darkModeFeature); } @media (min-width: 61.25em) { .furniture-wrapper #headline > div:first-child, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=headline] > div:first-child, .furniture-wrapper .headline > div:first-child { border-top: 1px solid var(–headerBorderColor); } } .furniture-wrapper #headline h1, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=headline] h1, .furniture-wrapper .headline h1 { font-weight: 700; color: #dcdcdc; } .furniture-wrapper #headline figure, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=headline] figure, .furniture-wrapper .headline figure { margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 2px; } @media (min-width: 71.25em) { .furniture-wrapper #meta:before, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta]:before { background-color: var(–headerBorderColor); } } .furniture-wrapper #meta details, .furniture-wrapper #meta summary, .furniture-wrapper #meta summary span, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta] details, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta] summary, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta] summary span { color: #dcdcdc; } .furniture-wrapper #meta .meta__social a, .furniture-wrapper #meta .meta__social button, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta] .meta__social a, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta] .meta__social button { border-color: var(–headerBorderColor); color: var(–new-pillar-colour, –darkModeFeature); } .furniture-wrapper #meta .meta__social a svg, .furniture-wrapper #meta .meta__social button svg, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta] .meta__social a svg, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta] .meta__social button svg { fill: var(–new-pillar-colour, –darkModeFeature); } .furniture-wrapper #meta .meta__social a:hover, .furniture-wrapper #meta .meta__social button:hover, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta] .meta__social a:hover, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta] .meta__social button:hover { color: var(–darkBackground); background-color: var(–new-pillar-colour, –darkModeFeature); } .furniture-wrapper #meta .meta__social a:hover svg, .furniture-wrapper #meta .meta__social button:hover svg, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta] .meta__social a:hover svg, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta] .meta__social button:hover svg { fill: var(–darkBackground); } .furniture-wrapper #meta div, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta] div { color: #dcdcdc; } .furniture-wrapper #meta a, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta] a { color: var(–new-pillar-colour, –darkModeFeature); } .furniture-wrapper #meta a:hover, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta] a:hover { color: var(–new-pillar-colour, –darkModeFeature); text-decoration-color: var(–new-pillar-colour, –darkModeFeature); } .furniture-wrapper #meta a + span, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta] a + span { color: var(–new-pillar-colour, –darkModeFeature); } .furniture-wrapper .standfirst a, .furniture-wrapper .standfirst li a, .furniture-wrapper #standfirst a, .furniture-wrapper #standfirst li a, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=standfirst] a, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=standfirst] li a { border-bottom: none; color: var(–new-pillar-colour, –darkModeFeature); background-image: none !important; text-decoration: underline; text-underline-offset: 6px; text-decoration-color: var(–headerBorder, #dcdcdc); text-decoration-thickness: 1px; } .furniture-wrapper .standfirst a:hover, .furniture-wrapper .standfirst li a:hover, .furniture-wrapper #standfirst a:hover, .furniture-wrapper #standfirst li a:hover, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=standfirst] a:hover, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=standfirst] li a:hover { border-bottom: none; text-decoration-color: var(–new-pillar-colour, –darkModeFeature); } .furniture-wrapper .standfirst p, .furniture-wrapper #standfirst p, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=standfirst] p { color: #dcdcdc; } @media (min-width: 61.25em) { .furniture-wrapper .standfirst p:first-of-type, .furniture-wrapper #standfirst p:first-of-type, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=standfirst] p:first-of-type { border-top: 1px solid var(–headerBorderColor); } } @medFor a very long time, I dreamed of being cured. I was born in 1981. I learned to walk early enough, but I stumbled and fell more easily than other children. My parents began to worry that something was wrong, that my muscles were weaker than they should be. Eventually, at the age of three, I was diagnosed with a form of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). In the 1980s, the precise mechanics were not yet understood, but the condition was known to be hereditary, probably linked to a recessive gene. It was also known to be progressive. As I aged, my muscles would not keep pace. At eight, I began to use a wheelchair for longer distances. By the time I was 18, I rarely walked outdoors anymore. It is hard to be young and to know that you are growing weaker rather than stronger. I had all the same aspirations that my nondisabled friends did, but I lived in fear of the future in a way they did not. I spent a lot of time thinking about what my life would have been like if I didn’t have SMA. The images in my head were of something like a double: myself, only rid of this one deficit, imprecisely defined, but encoded somewhere in my body. In the 1990s, the human genome began tomapped. Medical genetics grew more and more precise. I was vaguely aware of this—that genetic conditions like mine were being better understood every year. With that understanding came the possibility, however faint, that there might be some form of treatment for me beyond the endless hours of painful, barely worthwhile physical therapy I did after school.
“It bears remembering that the majority of disabilities do not stem from genetics, but from the wear and tear of the world.”
At some point, it did occur to me that before medical genetics could even begin to pursue a treatment, an SMA gene would be identifiable in embryos. My other self might be me, cured. Or he might be someone living in my place, while I had never been born at all.
As science progressed, this other self came to seem more concrete, more knowable than ever. It was an immensely attractive image. In almost every other respect, I was happy to be me. I didn’t bother to ask who I might have been if my eyes were blue, like my sister’s, instead of brown. I didn’t ask whether I’d have been happier with a talent for music instead of languages. Only this one error in my genome would need to have been corrected, and I would have been me, only better.
Eventually, this perfect shadow-self faded away, for many reasons. But last year it came back to haunt me, as I read about a series of adverts placed by a company called Nucleus Genomics. Throughout the New York City subway system, Nucleus promised prospective parents that they could now have their “best baby.” Through posters claiming that “height is 80% genetic” and “intelligence is 50%,” potential customers were led to a website detailing an expensive, comprehensive IVF procedure. Up to 20 embryos would be screened for every genetic disorder under the sun, but also for eye and hair colour, and for traits ranging from strength and longevity to insomnia and male-pattern baldness.
It was a sales pitch perfectly tailored to the present moment. We already seek to optimise ourselves in every way, through healthy, precisely monitored living. Through the measurement and quantification of exercise routines, nutrition and even sleep patterns, we can assess whether we are living our lives in the best possible way, so why not have the best baby as well? Although we may not be immortality-seeking billionaires, we are all constantly living under the relentless imperative to strive for human perfection, in our own generation and the next. And although it has taken on a new, consumerist form, centred on the individual self, that imperative has a familiar name: eugenics.
Genomics companies tend to avoid the label eugenics, and for good reason. Although the word derives from the Greek for “good birth,” in the wake of the second world war, eugenics was broadly disavowed as a racist, pseudo-scientific movement. Its stated aim was to improve the human species, but its most tangible results were the involuntary sterilisation and forcible institutionalisation of “inferior” people in many countries and, in Nazi Germany, the mass murder of people deemed a threat to the master race.
In the preceding decades, however, eugenics was popular among scientists, politicians and the general public. Although many of its champions were elitist, sexist and racist reactionaries, there were eugenic progressives, eugenic socialists and eugenically minded feminists. While some eugenicists advocated the forced sterilisation of people deemed unfit to reproduce, some advocated women’s right to birth control as a means of social improvement. After all, the belief that many traits in human beings were strongly hereditary was not incompatible with the belief that humans also needed good sanitary conditions, public health and welfare systems, and access to education if they were to realise their full potential.
It is impossible to understand the appeal of eugenics without realising that it held both utopian and dystopian elements. This is particularly iIntellectual disability was one of eugenics’ biggest targets, but many other conditions also recurred as things to be eradicated. In a way, this is unsurprising. Disability really does mean disadvantage. That is something I know in my bones – and my muscles. Disability, as the scholar Tom Shakespeare has written, is a predicament. It means limitation and restriction; it can mean pain and suffering. There are simple reasons why I longed so deeply for a cure. The reasons why and how that longing began to fade are more complex.
As it turned out, medical genetics really did produce an effective treatment for spinal muscular atrophy. About a decade ago, a drug called nusinersen was being developed. Some studies suggest that if it is given early enough, it can completely counteract the symptoms of the condition, while stopping its progression in adults. But medical genetics also proved that I didn’t have SMA after all. The original diagnosis was made on the basis of muscle biopsies and clinical guesswork. When a test for the genetic markers for SMA became available, mine came back negative. Instead, I was shown to have an even rarer condition – rarer, and less likely to attract research funding. I am tempted to quote Franz Kafka, who once remarked that there is infinite hope in the universe, only not for us.
But, in truth, that isn’t quite apt. Losing both the original diagnosis and the possibility of a treatment felt like a wave of sorrow, tinged with relief. Strange as it may seem, it also gave me a greater sense of freedom, that my life was really my own.
Don’t get me wrong. If there was an actual cure for my condition, I would take it. But there won’t be one, at least not for me. Too much time has passed; too much of my life is behind me. It is my life as it unfolded, and I try my best not to compare it to lives I didn’t live.
It is easier to think this way in your forties than in your teens. In the company of my nondisabled friends, I see plenty of injuries, illnesses and vaguely defined aches. We all have the markings of life. It’s not exactly that my disability ceases to matter as I grow older. In one way, it’s quite the opposite, as I feel the physical impact of the world on my muscles and joints. But I do feel a sense of convergence with my kith and my kin about the tenuousness and frailty of it all, about the need to take care of each other, as we hurtle towards what is coming.
Call it a kind of realism. Those of us who have kids know another side of it. If you plan to have a particular kind of child, you are setting yourself up for failure. Every parent I know has had to abandon their notions of what they thought their children would be for the reality of their particular children. I don’t think any one of them subscribed to the idea of an ideal baby. I hope they didn’t. Such an ideal is a terrible thing for parents as well as children to live up to.
This is the most corrosive effect of liberal neo-eugenics: in positing that an individual ideal of embodiment is something that can be specified, quantified and realised, it creates a framework for torturing both our children and ourselves. Why are we not this perfect thing? Why are we not fitter, happier, more productive? I’m not particularly sentimental about the value of disability in any particular case, but I think it is crucial to acknowledge disability as part of human variation. In treating ever more traits and qualities as things to be measured, ranked and diagnosed, we are doing the opposite – turning variation itself into something like disability.
For me, hope comes from working to change the world so that it accommodates imperfection. One of the reasons I dislike liberal eugenics is that its individualist ethos runs counter to political measures that have mattered immensely in my lifetime. I believe we should direct our efforts toward making better societies rather than making better people.
During the postwar era, in parallel with the eugAs attention shifted from the population level to the individual level, disability began to be seen as a socio-political issue rather than a medical one. What the sociologist Mike Oliver once called the “personal tragedy theory” of disability was challenged by a social model that explained how people with a range of different impairments and illnesses were disabled by societal structures. Essentially, what counts as “disability” varies with place and time. Although dyslexia can be hugely disadvantageous in the modern world, in a nonliterate society it amounts only to a neurological difference. The kind of mobility impairment that I have – being unable to walk more than a few steps, or get up from the floor – is restricting under any circumstances. But it is orders of magnitude more disabling in a society without wheelchairs or wheelchair accessibility. In between these extremes, there are conditions, illnesses and impairments that amount to disability in some contexts but not in others.
The goal is not to abolish cures, but to abolish the idea that only cures, or the prenatal optimisation of an embryo, can make for a life worth living. For the disability movement, the aim has always been to make a better world for everyone: a world where people with all kinds of bodies can thrive and flourish. That includes both people who were born disabled and people who had disability thrust upon them. It is a project that accounts for human variation and the variability of life. That is why it stands opposed to the neo-eugenic notion that there is a “best baby”; the best, in the singular, is not something the human species should be striving towards at all. It also bears remembering that the majority of disabilities do not stem from wholly genetic causes, but from an interaction of human genetic variation with the wear and tear of the world. There are good reasons to research cures, treatments and interventions whenever possible; there are equally good reasons to temper our expectations for how the human species may be perfected.
Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, a scholar of disability and bioethics, has put forward the “case for conserving disability”. It is a provocative case, for the obvious reason that disability and chronic illness are qualities that entail vulnerability and dependence on others. But then again, so does the human condition. We are born helpless, and we age into helplessness. Even if we come into the world equipped for perfect health, we are always at risk of illness and injury. Neo-eugenics offers a vision of total independence, of a disconnect from society. Measured against such an ideal, all of us fall short. However strong and self-reliant we may think ourselves to be, we are a social species, with few prospects of surviving, let alone thriving, on our own.
The aim of control, and so of predictability, is intrinsic to eugenics’ notion of the ideal society. But who wants to live in a fully controlled, fully predictable world? A world where an external entity tells you how to live your life down to the last detail – what to eat, when and where to move, what to watch – all in the name of becoming your best possible self? Oh, right.
Against this vision of total algorithmic control, we must appeal to the unpredictability of the human condition. Shortly after the second world war, Hannah Arendt wrote her magnum opus The Origins of Totalitarianism, in which she traced the construction of “superfluous people” – whole swathes of the population made disenfranchised and killable by states that saw them as useless at best and dangerous at worst. Eugenics was central to this idea of superfluousness: of people who were incidental to the future of the species, or the nation, or the race. Arendt described totalitarianism as, among other things, a vision for the absolute closure of the future, against all alternaIn a later book, The Human Condition, she introduced an alternative principle by which human societies could grow and develop. That principle was plurality—the encounter with difference. Only this encounter made possible what Arendt saw as humanity’s highest calling: action, something with unforeseeable consequences and unpredictable results. With her notion of plurality, Arendt was not referring to disability as such. But the concept can be extended to human embodiment. As humans, we are very much alike, but we are not the same. We may share the same bodily needs that must be met if we are to flourish, but our varying capabilities, talents and preferences mean that flourishing may look very different from one case to the next. Against the narrow-minded eugenic idea of “the best baby,” we can perhaps set another concept of Arendt’s: what she called natality. With each birth, with each new person, something wholly unique comes into being. And the world is made anew. Listen to our podcasts here and sign up to the long read weekly email here.
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs Would You Pay for the Best Baby Liberal Eugenics and the Pursuit of Human Perfection
1 What does liberal eugenics mean
Its the idea that parents should be free to use technologies like genetic screening or embryo selection to choose traits in their children not because the state forces it but because individuals choose it themselves
2 How is that different from oldfashioned eugenics
Old eugenics was staterun and coercive forced sterilizations breeding programs and terrible abuses Liberal eugenics relies on personal choice and the free market instead of government mandates
3 What does the best baby mean in this context
It refers to the idea of using technology to select or enhance traits like health intelligence or appearance in the hope of giving a child the best possible start in life
4 What technologies are we actually talking about
Mainly preimplantation genetic testing embryo selection and in some cases gene editing Most of this is about screening and choosing not rewriting genes
5 Can you really buy a better baby today
Not in any simple sense Todays tests mostly screen for serious genetic diseases Traits like intelligence or personality involve many genes and are poorly understood so promises of designer babies are far ahead of the science
6 What are the potential benefits
Reducing the risk of severe inherited diseases sparing children and families from serious suffering and giving parents more reproductive choice
7 Whats the main ethical worry
That children become products designed to parents specifications treated as objects to optimize rather than people to love as they are
8 Why is choice alone not enough to make it ethical
Because choices dont happen in a vacuum If some parents can afford enhancement and others cant free choice can widen inequality and create social pressure to keep up
9 Doesnt this risk creating a genetic divide
Thats a central concern If enhancements are expensive they could entrench advantage across generations what some call genetic classes
10 Whats the disability rights critique
Many disability advocates argue that selecting against certain traits sends the message that lives with those traits are less worth living and that society should focus on inclusion rather than elimination
