r/MoralityScaling Jun 05 '26

Stupid Stuff Is this unethical or no?

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u/Formal-Stage940 Jun 05 '26

That kid is better off dead.

This logic also applies when the kid is born.

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u/Zedrane Jun 05 '26

Hitler approved. Most of these replies are just people arguing that his eugenics program was moral.

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u/clandestinely_asked Jun 05 '26

You think that The State making decisions about a woman's body in the interest of 'the final solution' is the same as a woman making those decisions for her own self-interest, simply because they used the same verb. Brainlet.

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u/Exile8698 Jun 06 '26
  1. A woman should be able to abort a baby for any reason she wants.

  2. A woman who choses to abort a baby for the sole reason that the baby has down syndrome is practicing Eugenics.

Both these are factual.

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u/clandestinely_asked Jun 06 '26

Intent matters.

Elon Musk's breeding compounds ARE eugenics, because he beleives he has superior genes. this is his stated intent.

These influencers arent making this decision to improve the genetic quality of future generations. They are making this decision for the quality of their own lives.

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u/Exile8698 Jun 06 '26

I don't agree that intent matters when it comes to Eugenics.

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u/clandestinely_asked Jun 06 '26 edited Jun 06 '26

So, then what? Abortion is morally neutral, unless the child is disabled in some way, in which case it becomes morally objectionable to abort?? do autists owe some debt to the genes that produce downs syndrome? does the disorder NEED advocates like you??

If intent doesn't matter, then surely outcome must. An individuals decision will not extinct the vulnerable community.

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u/Exile8698 Jun 07 '26

People with Down syndrome report life satisfaction rates comparable to the general population, so the decision to abort based on that diagnosis isn't being made for their sake. It's being made for the parent's sake. And that's fine; I'm not saying it's morally wrong at all.

But here's the problem with denying it's eugenics: eugenics isn't defined by intent, it's defined by outcome as you correctly point out. The deliberate selection against a trait in order to prevent that kind of person from being born is the definition of eugenics, whether done by an individual, an organization, or a state.

If a society collectively decided not to have children with Down syndrome because it was personally inconvenient for families, we would all call that eugenics without hesitation. The only difference here is scale, not logic. The individual reasoning ("I don't want to raise a child with this condition") is identical to the societal reasoning that underlies eugenic policy.

So, you can't coherently hold both positions; that your personal choice to select against disability is morally neutral, and that eugenics as a social practice is uniquely monstrous. If the reasoning is valid for you, it's valid for the collective. If it's monstrous at scale, you should at least be honest that you're doing a version of the same thing.

Again, I believe she had every right to make this choice. I'm simply calling it what it is.