Human Development
Euphenics
Description:
The management of the developmental patterns of individuals as an environmental support for eugenical measures leading to improvements in genetic endowments. This may include the treatment of genetic disease by medical and surgical means - [therapeutic medical genetics]. However, treatment of the symptom but not the cause may lead to the survival of an individual who would probably otherwise have died in infancy. Since there is a likelihood of any offspring of the individual so treated also suffering from the same malfunction and therefore also requiring treatment, euphenics often sometimes argued as contributing to genetic deterioration of the gene pool. There is therefore the ethical dilemma of whether individuals who might be helped should be refused treatment on eugenic grounds.