When the "Right to Bear," Harms

I was browsing some status updates today on facebook (a dangerous past time, I know) and happened across this little gem from an (alleged) high school classmate: I wonder why we spay and neuter our pets, but don't sterilize humans based on IQ? A little help Obama please.

So this is what we've come to, then. Eugenics.

Not exactly cutting-edge philosophy here, people, but to gaze into the vapid stares of members of my generation, you'd swear they each sincerely believed themselves to be the next P Diddy or Ashton Kutcher.

Come on, guys. You're killing me here. Or at least, you're killing off our chance at a decent future. When will the tiresome platitudes and social justice mantras of the likes of Margaret Sanger finally be laid to rest?

The answer is, I supposed, never... until the dignity of life is reclaimed and proclaimed from the rooftops. As long as we're just "ghosts in the machine," as long as we're spiritual beings trapped briefly in paltry flesh and bone for a brief hiatus in this lifetime... well then, it doesn't really matter what - or who - we do with our bodies.

The crux of the matter probably isn't a deep-seated hatred for the handicapped, (though my friend's status would seem to indicate otherwise) but rather, a worldview incompatible with human dignity regardless of human efficiency.

Put more simply: if you're not producing, you'd better not even think of reproducing.

The obvious and easy answer - for Margaret Sanger, for Adolf Hitler, and for my friend on facebook - is to simply "eliminate" the unsavory members of the human species, thereby purifying the race.

How, you ask?

Don't be silly. By denying them their "right" to breed. The same way we eradicate viruses or uncontrollable insect populations.

And once we've cleared the way for fitter, smarter men and women to inherit the race of men... why not a few tweaks here and there? Can't we selectively abort to avoid Down's Syndrome? Wouldn't it be kinder to deny earthly life to a fetus with Spina Bifida? And what about certain - ahem - populations who are historically prone to maintain the lowest socioeconomic status quo? Couldn't we push a button and "reject" the rejects before they waste a minute of our time?

This is the answer, though, for some who champion affordable health care. This is the answer for some who tout an overpopulation myth, qualifying the value of an immortal person by their lifetime carbon use expectancy.

And this is the logical line of thinking for a generation who've come of age in the era of Playboy and Roe v. Wade, who've lived their whole lives confidant that the body is a tool for pleasure and productivity, and that persons are only loved so deeply as they are wanted. And that absolutely everything - even one's very right to draw breath - is open for negotiation.