And who is going to decide and how grave does the offence have to be? (I would make an exception where statues are erected long after the event with the deliberate aim of stoking old conflicts, as with some of the confederate statues in the US.) The word has acquired an aura of horror, but in practice we abort foetuses known to have abnormalities. They may have been misguided but the early proponents of eugenics genuinely wished to reduce the human misery that was all too apparent in Victorian times. Jenny BackwellHove, East Sussex• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters

Source: The Guardian September 20, 2017 18:33 UTC