Eugenics: new tools, old ideas

Prejudices against people who have noticeable disabilities have resulted in needless social and economic barriers to their participation in society. In Germany under the Nazis, a movement for eugenics, or "racial hygiene," led to the sterilization and, later, the elimination of people with particular mental or physical disabilities. In the United States, earlier in the century, the eugenics movement produced compulsory sterilization laws. At present, physicians and scientists are developing techniques for prenatal diagnosis of increasing numbers of inherited diseases and disabilities, although more babies and children are needlessly disabled because of poverty and accidents than for genetic reasons. Such prenatal tests are being hailed as progress, yet their availability is once again turning pregnancy into a medical event and confronts women with decisions and choices that can be extremely difficult.