Modern Eugenics: Linking Premature Birth to Mental Disorders

Susanne Posel
Occupy Corporatism
June 12, 2012

 

 

 

The Archives of General Psychiatry (AGP) says that being born prematurely is linked to an increased risk of a wide range mental disorders that could surface later in life.

The study states that bipolar disorder, depression and psychosis were all more likely to occur in premature babies; a concern for the AGP since there has been a significant spike in premature births.

Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College in London and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden reviewed records of 1.3 million people born in Sweden between 1973 and 1985.

King’s College in London, where the researchers for this study originated, has a long history of eugenics. Some prominent figures such as Francis Galton, Julian Huxley and Karl Pearson, spent time at King’s College and studied the “morality of eugenics”.

Eugenics, an applied “science” aims to improve the “genetic composition of the population. In the 1912, the First International Congress of Eugenics was held. Attendees were Leonard Darwin; son of Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty and future Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone.

Progressive forms of eugenics have included genetic manipulation, genome mapping for identification purposes and reproductive technologies.

The roots of eugenics stems from experimentation on the world’s populations by governments, utilitarian and social theories, private institutions and academics that advocate a social philosophy of the promotion of higher reproduction and cultivation of specific traits and people to elevate humanity as a whole.

The findings showed that 508 (born prematurely) out of 10,523 people were admitted to hospitals with psychiatric disorders. Statistically speaking that is 1 out of 1,000 chance of developing a mental disorder from being born prematurely.

The study also revealed that premature babies were 7 times more likely to have bipolar disorder and more than 3 times more likely to develop depression.
Chiara Nosarti, participating researcher in the study, suggested that actual figures could be higher because most people with mental disorders do not visit hospitals for treatment. Nosarti advises parents to “be aware of this and monitor early signs of later more serious problems.”

Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of SANE , a mental health charity, stated: “We already knew that premature birth may be linked to schizophrenia, but to see evidence linking it to a range of psychiatric conditions which required hospitalization is striking.”

In another study published by researcher from the University of Washington, Samples of blood and saliva from parents were used to determine the DNA sequence of unborn babies. The scientist’s genetic predictions were confirmed by analyzing the umbilical cords blood of the babies after birth.

Jay Shendure, co-author of the study said: “Many of these diseases are so rare that most people have never heard of them, but collectively they affect around 1% of births.” Over 3,000 disorders caused by single-gene mutations could be identified using this technique; such as Down syndrome, autism, epilepsy and schizophrenia.

The DNA mapping would assist doctors in assessing the unborn baby’s risks and possibly the feasibility of their right to life.

The implications of these studies correlates to eugenics in that it seeks to identify parameters of acceptability within society. To classify a premature birth with predisposition to mental disorders is to condemn that individual to a form of scientific racism. With the advent of reprogenetics, preemptive abortions and designer babies, a perceived improvement of the human gene pool could be argued with the use of studies such as this.

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