"Newgenics" is the name given to modern eugenic practices that have emerged in light of new technological developments, referring to ideas and practices that appeal to scientific advances and genetic knowledge with the aim of improving mankind and curing or eliminating genetically based illness. Common examples of newgenics practices included pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and selective abortion after prenatal testing. This label would also extend to the not yet fully-developed field of genetic engineering. Given the focus on the birth of healthy children, an argument could also be made that practices like discouraging women from drinking or smoking during pregnancy, or encouraging them to take supplements like folic acid, could be classified as newgenics.

Despite the discrediting of traditional eugenic theory, newgenics has emerged as a potentially kinder, gentler alternative. Especially as they relate to the use of reproductive technologies, these practices can be distinguished from traditional eugenics in three major ways. First, they tend to be examples of positive rather than negative eugenics, meaning that they are concerned with encouraging people to have “good” children, rather than with discouraging “bad” people from reproducing. Second, they tend to fully embrace the concept of reproductive autonomy, encouraging potential parents to exercise their reproductive rights and use the technologies that are available to them. Finally, newgenics is different because the government is not directly involved: there is no legislation mandating that potential parents use reproductive technologies.

Given these differences, some critics have questioned the name “newgenics,” as they feel it unfairly associates moral permissible practices involving the exercise of reproductive rights with morally impermissible practices like involuntary sterilization. Proponents, however, point to other important links between newgenics and traditional eugenics. Notably, newgenic practices are still linked up with our conceptions of pathology, subnormalcy, and normalcy—conceptions that, some have argued, are largely socially constructed. Further, central to the premise of newgenics is the idea that the presence of genetic “defects” is a problem to be solved, and that the solution to this problem involves preventing the birth of individuals who would be deemed defective.

-Caroline Lyster