Hacker News Reader

so science fiction of Alien Nation in a ways. so can they simply stock pile good genes and swap them out as necessary in the near future?

View on HN

That strays into the eugenics region. Not there yet; the moral and legal 'obstacles' will be present for a long while.

I've never heard Eugenics defined in this way. I've only heard it used to mean selective planned breeding (as we do with livestock), but not intentional selective improvement of the parents' DNA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_eugenics

Totally worth peeking into, it's interesting what many countries have considered, have attempted, and are continuing to ruminate on.

Hitler got some of his worst ideas from the Eugenics Institute in California. Such as 'humanely' gassing undesirables and 'genetic defectives'. Eugenics, from Galton on, was considered progressive, enlightened, 'scientific' thought at the time.

The common thread in all the examples there is that choice are made for parents for the sake of society or "the race." I'm not familiar with Alien Nations so I can't speak to the OP but clearly not all genetic manipulation or screening is actually eugenics.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com