Ethical eugenics

Dr Calum McKellar’s conclusion that “eugenic ideology is ­developing very fast” (Letters, 19 March) is undeniable.

The unfolding science of human genetics over recent ­decades leaves us in no doubt about the process of heredity, the well-spring of so much of our physical and mental beings.

In the discussion on bioethics which Dr McKellar urges upon us, we must not automatically ­prejudge eugenics in the light of the brutal and politicised practices carried out in its name in the earlier part of last century.

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To deny the working of heredity and its profound influence on all animal life which so many pronouncements on bio-ethics currently display is similarly ­political in origin.

Alastair Harper

Lathalmond

by Dunfermline

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