The mother’s drive to protect her children is the most powerful heroic instinct we know. Having children is a way of ensuring our genes are passed on to the next generation. Humans usually have just one child at a time, so they are prepared to do virtually anything to ensure their children are safe.
Natural Born Heroes, BBC Science & Nature
Is the aspiration to have a mutation free child a consequence of instinct, desire or duty? This kind of behaviour if viewed in the context of enhancement desire is both debatable and open to criticism. However when seen as an expression of a protective primal instinct and a sense of duty to one’s progeny, are accusations of eugenics still valid?
Justification of behaviour stemming from a parental protective view can be seen as a subjective matter. Parents often cause unintentional psychological or physical harm to their children for the sake of religion or culture. Circumcision, feet binding, objection to blood transfusion or even arranged marriages can all seem cruel from the outside. But to the parent who inflicts them on his child they are viewed as protective measures, improving the child’s prospects in life (or the after life) according to the family’s beliefs or social structure. The protective instinct might be shared by all, but its interpretations are often culture-dependent.
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