Eugenics is a complicated issue that always finds its way in and out of the news. Scientists exploit new technology which can give you the ability to choose the sex, eye color and hair color of your unborn children. “Designer babies” is the term for these potentially perfect children, and a website called beautifulpeople.com can help you find your “perfect” mate to harvest a supposedly beautiful child.
The hype of this website is that only “beautiful” people can join. The process begins with creating a profile, which is simply comprised of: name, email, location, sex and a profile picture. The catch is, only existing members can allow you to join this website by casting a vote from “absolutely not” to “beautiful.”
If you earn enough beautiful votes you are free to roam the website’s “largest, most exclusive beautiful community in the world,” as stated from its front page. If not, then you are cast aside into the group of beauty outcasts.
Recently, though, the company founder, Robert Hintze, has suggested opening the site to everyone, even those who may not have desirable features. “Initially, we hesitated to widen the offering to non-beautiful people. But everyone — including ugly people — would like to bring good looking children in to the world, and we can’t be selfish with our attractive gene pool,” said Hintze in a public statement.
This site is completely judgmental, and is meant for those who suffer from extreme narcissism. The results will only create a generation that has been bred on the idea that beauty is the top priority, and that love and companionship don’t matter.
One of the members of beautifulpeople.com, Parissa Mobasher stated on ABC News, “I know it sounds really shallow in the context of beautiful people, but if you look at human nature, the initial attraction is the exterior … It’s that extra edge in life.” But it’s also not the only feature that matters about a person.
What happened to intelligence, the ability to carry on a meaningful conversation, being witty, or having special talents? These are the things about individual people that make them unique and interesting and more than a face. We all know that even without advances in cosmetic surgery that a pretty face doesn’t last forever so having a great personality should be valued more.
“It’s just terribly insulting,” Dr. Daniel Sulmasy, a bioethicist at the University of Chicago, commented on the website. “It trivializes our values. It trivializes human sexuality. It’s just another example of the superficiality and consumerism that I think is running rampant in our society.”
This website is a terrible example of web designers and conceited founders taking the already complicated issue of eugenics into their own hands and using it for the wrong reasons. Faults and even characteristics about ourselves that may not be desirable should not be frowned upon, but embraced because it is part of our uniqueness as humans.
— Rebecca Miller is a junior studying photography and journalism. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu or on Twitter via @WildcatOpinions.
