Eugenics
Eugenics is the science of production of healthy offspring by the application of the laws of genetics to the improvement of the human race. The primary aim of eugenics is to produce a race of physically perfect human beings.
The eugenic measures involves two types and they are negative eugenics and positive eugenics.
Negative Eugenics
It refers to preventing the multiplication of defective genes. Negative eugenic measures are as follows:
1) Regulation of Marriages
Characters of the offspring, are determined by the parental stock. Number of abnormalities like albinism, colour blindness and some fatal defects like haemophilia are transmitted from parent to offspring. Persons with hereditary diseases should not be allowed to marry. So they are excluded from reproduction and the future progeny is saved from these hereditary defects.
2) Isolating the Defective Persons
Peoples with serious abnormal hereditary defects, like epilepsy, feeble mindedness and criminal tendencies should be isolated. Such person should not be permitted to mingle and marry with normal persons.
3) Sterilizing the defectives
The genetically defective persons should be sterilized. The process of sterilization involves tubectomy (removal of oviduct) in the female and vasectomy in the case of males. The vasectomy is the partial removal of vasa deferentia and preventing the release of spermatozoa.
4) Prevention of consanguineous marriages
Consanguineous marriages(cousin marriages) increases the frequency of appearance of recessive defects. The lethal genes are recessive and so remain unexpressed in the heterozygous condition. Marriages between close relative like cousins, tend to bring together the recessive alleles in homozygous condition. Such close marriages should be restricted.
5) Control immigration
The diseased, feeble minded persons or persons with hereditary defects should not be permitted for immigration.
6) Birth control
People with genetical defects should be advised to have small family.
Positive Eugenics
It comprises of all those eugenics measures, which help to increase the percentage of desirable traits in the population.
1) Early Marriage
Persons with desirable characters should marry early. They should produce more children. Late marriages produce defective children.
2) Selective mating
The selected men and women of best eugenic value should be encouraged to increase their birth rate.
3) Selective fusion of gametes
The sperm and ova from most desirable .
male and female should be collected and stored in egg and sperm banks. These selected sperm and ova are used for artificial insemination and implantation and produce test tube babies.
4) Removal of social hindrances
Religion, castism and dowry are major social hindrances in the way of marriages. Because of this, good germplasm from different sources fails to come together. These social hindrances should be removed and inter-religion, inter-caste and inter-racial marriages should be encouraged.
5) Education
The people should be given proper education on human biology, human genetics and sex
6) Gene therapy
In gene therapy, a defective gene is replaced by a normal gene by applying genetic engineering techniques.
7) Genetic counselling
The advice given for the improvement of hereditary characters is called genetic counselling.
The person giving the advice is called genetic counselor. Advice is given on the basic principles of inheritance.
The symptom's risks and methods of inheritance of the following hereditary defects should be educated:
Haemophilia Syndromes
Colorblindness Inborn errors of metabolism.
Erythroblastosis
The methods of preventing, controlling and treating the defects should be educated