Science and Poor White Trash

American Sexuality Magazine has an interesting piece on the origins of "poor white trash" as a social classification and its intersections with the eugenics movement.

Please note that although eugenics has been rejected (for the most part) by the scientific community and is now considered a pseudoscience, it was once deemed science, was even taught in many major universities, and was promoted by the most prominent scientists of the Progressive Era. Along with scientific racism, scientific sexism, and scientific homophobia , the eugenics movement provides evidentiary justification for a fair amount of skepticism in regards to science and scientism as well as a general reluctance to simply concede to the "greater wisdom" of scientists in areas of social policy and law.

Although I personally support stem-cell research, the woman's right to choose, etc., I cannot in good conscience condemn those who are completely opposed or merely wary as motivated solely by irrational anti-scientific views. We should, as a society, be skeptical of proclamations from on high and any attempt to erradicate careful moral and ethical deliberation of how science is to be used and what scientific "advances" should be accepted.