Liberal eugenics

Liberal eugenics, also known as new eugenics and consumer eugenics, is a neologism for a claimed ideology which advocates the use of reproductive and genetic technologies where the choice of enhancing human characteristics and capacities is left to the individual preferences of parents acting as consumers, rather than the public health policies of the state. The term was coined by bioethicist Nicholas Agar. Since around the year 2000, criticism has risen preferring to call the theory "libertarian eugenics" because of its intention to keep to role of the state minimal in the advocated eugenics program.

The term refers to an ideology of eugenics inspired by liberal theory and contrasted from the coercive state eugenics programs of the first half of the 20th century. The sterilization of individuals alleged to have undesirable genes is the most controversial aspect of those programs.

Historically, eugenics is often broken into the categories of positive (encouraging reproduction in the designated "fit") and negative (discouraging reproduction in the designated "unfit"). According to Edwin Black, many positive eugenic programs were advocated and pursued during the early 20th century, but the negative programs were responsible for the compulsory sterilization of hundreds of thousands of persons in many countries, and were contained in much of the rhetoric of Nazi eugenic policies of racial hygiene and genocide. Liberal eugenics belongs to the "positive eugenics" category allowing parents to select desirable traits in an unborn child.

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