I deleted my eugenics tweet, not because I don't stand behind it but because I think my phrasing was unclear. So a thread to clarify exactly what I mean:
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Fucking around with genes has historically been used for really bad things. This is bad and I do not support it.
But also, if I could offer free gene modification to end terrible genetic diseases in fetuses, I would probably do this.
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I used the term 'eugenics' which I understood to be an umbrella term for everything regarding "changing the genetics of human beings" (based on the dictionary/wikipedia), but it seems people associate the word with the use of force and only bad things, which I do not stand by.
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Biological purity is very fascinating. We got a lot of bad history associated with that concept though, which muddies the waters and restricts wide conversations. As seen with you, you get lashed. Not spoken to.
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Yeah, eugenics almost always referred to as sterilization it people deemed undesirable, and it usually extremely racist
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You can’t just take one definition of a word like eugenics and act as if that’s what everyone means when they use it. Eugenics isn’t just the idea of how human genetics change. It’s a philosophy about human value that has a significant violent history.
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We're discovering more and more every day that forced bad things or not, it's still a bad thing/ bad science. Your attempts to rectify things isn't less-wrong here. Whatever you call it, eugenics isn't something we have the nuanced knowledge to tackle and might not ever.
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We have CRISPER and gene mapping. The ability to modify ourselves is radically expanding. We HAVE to talk about it, but as you've found out, there are a lot of hidden landmines and emotional reactions surrounding this.
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Folks, if we're promoting neurodiversity, the first thing we need to allow is for the diverse among us to make these kinds of clarifications when misunderstandings occur. Semantics is a shitty thing to ruin good faith actors over. Engage and ask clarifying questions.
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"Eugenics" means "good genes." It means that someone, somewhere, is making a value judgment of which genes are good, and then acting to encourage those genes and limit others.
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Just to clarify I specifically work on editing genes of humans to cure/treat diseases and we do not call that eugenics in any way we call that gene therapy.
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