Eugenics: Past, Present, and Future
Understanding the human – a form of moral and religious introspection and historical responsibility and a quest for
scientific knowledge and adaptability to technological progress ‘Crafting humans’ – and its corollary human enhancement – is a contested topic, both in medical sciences and the humanities. With continuing advances
in science and technology, scientists and the general public alike are aware that the basic foundations of the
human condition are now at stake. This volume contributes to this growing body of work. It offers insights into some of the reflections and imaginaries that have inspired and legitimated both theoretical and practical programmes
for ‘crafting’ humans, ranging from the religious/spiritualist and the philosophical/cultural to the secular and the scientific/scientistic; from the
religious and mystical quest for human perfection to the biopolitical eugenic state of the twentieth century, and
current theories of human enhancement. This volume discusses
these topics in a synchronized way, as interrelated variants of the most central story in history, that of human
perfectibility