ght, with advocacy for eugenic abortion, human cloning, and the drive to learn how to "enhance" the human genome. This phenomenon seems to be repeating itself in the contemporary divisions among churches over social issues such as abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem-cell research, and therapeutic cloning - - agendas that, like eugenics, undercut belief in the sanctity of human life.
Considering the history of liberal religion's embrace of eugenics, this "new eugenics" once again threatens the vulnerable with the pernicious notion that some human lives have greater moral value than others. Christine Rosen's Preaching Eugenics could not be more relevant.
Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and a special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture. His next book, Consumer's Guide to a Brave New World, will be published in the fall. This first appeared in the Weekly Standard and is reprinted with permission.