<p>my SOLE reservation with abortion has nothing to do with a fetus and everything to do with those who are unquestionably alive. i think that widespread use of abortion risks a rise of eugenical mindsets that could excerbate the existing strains in our society as a result of prejudice. let me illustrate.</p>
<p>lets take a random, probably imaginary, culture for example. say that this culture favors individuals over 6 feet tall, who have curly hair, and brown eyes. in this situation, especially given the technological trends in the biomedical industry that allow parents to know more and more about their children before birth, there will almost certainly be a rise in abortions of children who don't fit the correct profile. this will ultimately result in more and more people being of that perfect stereotype.</p>
<p>the danger here is that what used to be an ideal now becomes the norm. i'm not really concerned with the innumerable cell clusters who get aborted early on in development, but rather those people who are alive. in my scenario, as the ideal social set of tall, curly haired, brown eyed people becomes commonplace, anyone outside of this norm will be marginalized. now i know that my scenario is pretty ridiculous and almost humorous, but think about it in context of american society. anyone who balds before a certain age will be an outcast. anyone vulnerable to a certain disease will be looked down upon. the problem is that this trend of pre-birth eugenics will result in new and far more insidious forms of racism, sexism, and other forms of prejudice. just think - a form of prejudice that is so hateful that unless someone fits all the characteristics looked upon by society as ideal, they will be marginalized.</p>
<p>here's an example. i know that in my culture and in some asian cultures, male children are preferred over female children. think if parents had the option to abort a child if it was a female. what kinds of implications would this have for sexism in society?</p>
<p>this will ultimately breed a new and far more destructive form of racism - a racism not contingent on ethnicity, but genetics. the ultimate consequence is that this could split society into two communities: that of people possessing perfect characteristics, and that of the "flawed." and, as history has shown time and again, as soon as a society fractures along "us" and "them" lines, the worst atrocities are not only possible, but perhaps inevitable. </p>
<p>the internment of the japanese during WWII, the extermination of the native americans, the enslavement of black people, the genocide in darfur, the ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Bosnia-Hertzogovena, and the holocaust are but a few examples of this.</p>
<p>so do i think this should be a reason we shouldn't allow abortion? no. but i think that there has to be a very firm safeguard (though i'm not sure what) that needs to be in place to keep social prejudices that exist in the status quo from spilling over into the very biological makeup of the next generation, who, presumably, would otherwise be the one to improve on our shortcomings as human beings.</p>