The College Fix

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A psychology professor at the University of New Mexico says she only encourages “smart and conscientious” people should procreate. She has previously criticized fellow leftists for having a “moral panic” about eugenics.

“I encourage people who are responsible and smart and conscientious to have children, because they’re going to make the future better,” Professor Diana Fleischman told The Telegraph for a story about “elite” couples having kids “to save mankind.”

Her understanding of a “couple” is a bit flawed, given that she and her husband, UNM Professor Geoffrey Miller, are openly “polyamorous.” Miller, curiously enough, has been critical of some left-wing trends in academia.

When asked by The College Fix if she meant that she only encourages smart and conscientious people to have kids, she said “yes.”

“Why would I encourage irresponsible people to have children?” Fleischman (pictured) wrote in an April 24 email to The Fix. In case you’re wondering, Fleischman has determined she falls under the approved category for making kids, as she is pregnant with her second child.

She has previously criticized other liberals for being opposed to eugenics. She calls the concern a “moral panic” and is worried it would undermine support for abortion.

Fleischman wrote in Quillette in 2021:

One of the reasons abortion bans on the basis of prenatal diagnoses may have received relatively little attention is because they leave the pro-choice Left in an uncomfortable ethical position. The view that a woman has a right to an abortion for any reason is fundamentally at odds with an anti-eugenic stance.

“For 40 years, the Left has waged a war against eugenics which has now given ammunition to those who want to restrict or criminalize abortion,” Fleischman lamented.

“The conversation about eugenics itself has been hopelessly muddled by the constant accusation of eugenics against people, technologies, and policies, making clear thinking on this important ethical issue in the public sphere nearly impossible.”

She told The Fix after publication of this articles that she does not consider herself a leftist. “I don’t think the government should determine who should and who should not have kids, not because that’s eugenics but because I don’t agree that the government should have a say in such freedoms. I’m a centrist libertarian,” she wrote in an email.

She deserves credit for saying what many liberals refuse to say – abortion is a tool of eugenics, often used to kill preborn babies who are diagnosed in utero with a disability, such as Down’s syndrome or spina bifida.

A report from the Senate Joint Economic Committee Republicans found that “absent selective abortion, 80 percent more babies with Down syndrome would be born each year and that the Down syndrome population would be 217,000 people greater in 50 years, an increase which is greater than the current Down syndrome population.”

“A likely driver of the difference in abortion rates of people with Down syndrome and the general population is noninvasive prenatal screenings, which were introduced in 2011 and have become increasingly widespread in the years since,” the report found.

The University of New Mexico professor is, sadly, just one more example of an elite progressive that seeks to remold the world in her fashion, following in the eugenics history of people like Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood.

Children are a gift from God and should be valued as such.

They are not commodities to be made in labs and discarded when there is a “defect” found in the “product.”

Editor’s note: The article was updated to clarify that Fleischman only “encourages” smart and conscientious people to have kids, not that her view is that only those people should have kids. It also was updated to add further quotes from Fleischman.

MORE: UC Berkeley suspends ‘eugenics fund’

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