With genes it is complicated. Sometimes one gene encodes one trait. But often dozen genes cooperate on one trait, and one gene contributes to dozen traits. And most often, we don’t know exactly, either because our knowledge is poor, or the terittory is very complicated.
So if there would be a political pressure for “criminal gene” elimination, it could easily translate to a law of elimination some specific gene XYZ123, which according to one (low p-value, never replicated) study increases criminality by 1% (although only in presence of genes ABC987 and MN45, and only if given individual has a diabetes and was born in Sagittarius constellation) and also increases creativity by 2% (in presence of gene PQR654, and if the individual’s mother drank wine daily during pregnancy). For the lack of better candidates, this gene would be declared The Criminal Gene, and the 15% of people who have it would be sterilized when they commit a felony (and 5% of them would be exonerated later because some mistake during the trial would be discovered).
In absence of the reliable science (which means: until we are able to engineer it genetically), the “objective” laws would be guesses, based mostly on political pressure.
Also, would you like to break this taboo and allow your opponents to use sterilization to achieve their goals too? (Imagine that one day feminists would get enough power, and decide that the only way to get rid of the evil patriarchy forever is to sterilize all the white able hetero cis males. If you protest, you are the first to go to sterilization.) Sometimes it is good to have taboos.
With genes it is complicated. Sometimes one gene encodes one trait. But often dozen genes cooperate on one trait, and one gene contributes to dozen traits. And most often, we don’t know exactly, either because our knowledge is poor, or the terittory is very complicated.
So if there would be a political pressure for “criminal gene” elimination, it could easily translate to a law of elimination some specific gene XYZ123, which according to one (low p-value, never replicated) study increases criminality by 1% (although only in presence of genes ABC987 and MN45, and only if given individual has a diabetes and was born in Sagittarius constellation) and also increases creativity by 2% (in presence of gene PQR654, and if the individual’s mother drank wine daily during pregnancy). For the lack of better candidates, this gene would be declared The Criminal Gene, and the 15% of people who have it would be sterilized when they commit a felony (and 5% of them would be exonerated later because some mistake during the trial would be discovered).
In absence of the reliable science (which means: until we are able to engineer it genetically), the “objective” laws would be guesses, based mostly on political pressure.
Also, would you like to break this taboo and allow your opponents to use sterilization to achieve their goals too? (Imagine that one day feminists would get enough power, and decide that the only way to get rid of the evil patriarchy forever is to sterilize all the white able hetero cis males. If you protest, you are the first to go to sterilization.) Sometimes it is good to have taboos.