Eugenics- A revolutionary practice in the field of preventive medicine.

WHAT IS EUGENICS? Various infamous techniques such as CRISPR, genetic screening, etc. which are used to detect genetic defects come under the category of the term eugenics, which is a set of beliefs and practices aimed at improving the quality of human genetics. From a historic perspective, it excludes people/groups judged as inferior and promotes people/groups judged as superior. The analogy of selective breeding (choosing parents with particular characteristics to breed together and produce offspring with more desirable characteristics) has been applied to plants and domestic animals since immemorial time in order to devise a desirable combination of physical and mental characteristic traits in the offspring of suitable mated parents, as suggested by Plato, who was the first eugenicist. Now, however, it is quite an interesting dilemma for the usage of the term to imply new technology in genetics. Eugenic policies are separated into two types fundamentally. Positive eugenics and negative eugenics. Positive eugenics aims to promote reproduction among the genetically advantaged, such as the reproduction of educated, healthy, and successful people. Techniques that can be used include financial and political incentives, targeted demographic study, in vitro fertilisation, egg transplants, and cloning. Negative eugenics intend to eradicate people deemed physically, intellectually, or morally "undesirable" by sterilisation or segregation. Abortions, sterilisation, and other forms of family planning fall under this category. Both positive and negative eugenics can be coercive; for example, abortion was outlawed in Nazi Germany for women considered fit by the state. In addition to that, Nazi Germany also promoted reproduction of their preferred race, with the motive of crushing the unwanted race.

WHAT IS PREVENTIVE MEDICINE? Medical practices that are designed to avert and avoid diseases are called preventive medicine. Screening for hypertension and treating it before it becomes an illness is an example of good preventive medicine. Patient care is undertaken in a proactive manner in preventive medicine. The goal of preventive medicine is to eliminate diseases, either by preventing them from occurring or by halting them and avoiding their repercussions after they have begun. The primary issue in preventive medicine is to promote people to practice self-prevention.

EUGENICS AND PREVENTIVE MEDICINE There have been several disagreements and it seems to be a pretty heated argument about eugenics as a preventive medicine.

Limitations: Considering the ill-effects and cons of eugenics, the foremost disadvantage turns out to be the moral hazards it can cause. As mentioned before, Nazi Germany was a primary example of how eugenics can be a part of social discrimination, causing eugenics to be a social rhetoric. For example, actively encouraging immigration from certain countries as part of a eugenic policy (positive eugenics) is likely to discourage immigration from other countries; conversely, requiring that immigrants meet certain health requirements (negative eugenics) is likely to facilitate the immigration of those with the “worthy” traits associated with those health requirements. Immigration restrictions purposely based on eugenically undesirable traits, such as race, nationality, and ethnicity; discouragement or prohibition of marriage and family life for those with eugenically undesirable traits; and sexual segregation, celibacy, sterilization, and euthanasia of those with such traits have all been used as negative eugenic measures.

Strengths: Eugenicists argued that controlling heredity at the source was much more effective since it prevented issues from occurring in the first place rather than allowing them to arise and then dealing with the repercussions leading to the scientifically legitimate aspect of eugenics. The high prevalence of certain genetically transmitted disorders (Tay–Sachs, cystic fibrosis, Canavan's disease, and Gaucher's disease) among Ashkenazi Jews has been reduced in the current population with the help of genetic screening. According to Nathaniel C. Comfort of Johns Hopkins University, the eugenic impulse drives us to eliminate diseases, live longer and healthier lives with greater intelligence and better societal adjustment; it also promotes health benefits, intellectual thrill and profits of genetic bio-medicine. Therefore, it’s not that great an option to do otherwise.

Currently, the word is emotionally charged with negative implications, which may be irreversible. In the current discussion, the term "eugenics" is used to represent all that one finds potentially troubling or undesired in recent advancements in genetics and molecular biology as well as their application to genetic engineering.These advancements and applications are interpreted in the context of scientific progress's ambivalence. On one hand, there is hope that biomedical progress will free mankind from illness and suffering while on the other hand there is fear and anxiety generated by genetic engineering's evident mastery of human life.