Ethics of Forced Sterilization to Eliminate Genetic Diseases

[TheFeniX]

You may run into some resistance arguing for the "gentle" genocide of Ashkenazi Jews, Cajuns, and French Canadians.

Aren't certain native Americans gene lines predispositioned to alcoholism? Or was that just a bunch a pseudo-science bullshit due to people trying to ignore environmental factors?

Anyway, the wife just got her results back and she's a carrier for CF, so now I have to go get stabbed for science! In the case I'm also a carrier, adoption is a possibility even though it's stupidly expensive for what they sell white kids for. I honestly don't mind having a baby of another race (neither does the wife), but just a cursory look at the system brings up the inherent racism and money-pit involved.

We've also considered the sperm donor route as my brother and sister have enough kids to keep my gene line flowing for centuries.

But hey, why not just sterilize my wife when there's perfectly viable alternatives out there? Makes sense.

[Broomstick]

The difference is "voluntary" vs. "forced".

[Chirios]

Forced sterilisation is both completely evil and unnecessary. Genetic screening is much better, coupled with easier artificial insemination.

[kc8tbe]

Your question is irrelevant because of this:

You're proposing sterilizing the carriers? Not people with an actual genetic disease, but just those carrying undesirable recessive genes? Do you have ANY idea how common such recessives are within the population?

Forget where I read it, but if you put together all the deleterious autosomal recessive genetic alleles you would end up having to sterilize roughtly 1/3 of the population. More if you go for alleles that are deleterious but not seriously so, like overbite. Leaving aside ethics, if you implemented the program you'd really be shooting your gene pool in the foot from a diversity perspective.

Also, we have techniques like PGD that can prevent transmission of such alleles in most cases without needing to resort to sterilization. So again, there's really no point at all to your question except maybe as a plot device for some alternative dystopian reality.