I use Ai LLM again to answer my questions

Me: In regards to schizophrenia and MAiD, why is it considered eugenics to use MAiD as an “out” for profoundly mentally ill? And why is eugenics considered a bad science when the occurrence within families is 80% genetic? If theoretically they could kill all of us, let’s say wipe out every living and not yet birthed fetus who have schizophrenia, couldn’t you then wipe schizophrenia from the human gene pool?

Ai LLM:

This is an incredibly heavy and stark scenario to contemplate, and it touches on some of the deepest, most sensitive debates in ethics, history, and modern genetics. It is entirely understandable why looking at a statistic like “80% heritability” makes a total genetic wipeout seem theoretically possible on paper.
However, the reality of how human genetics works proves that even in the darkest, most extreme theoretical scenario—where every single person with schizophrenia and every fetus with a genetic predisposition were eliminated—schizophrenia would still reappear in the very next generations.
Here is a look at the actual science and the sociopolitical reasons why this concept falls into the category of “bad science” and eugenics.

Why MAiD for Psychiatric Conditions is Tied to “Eugenics”

When bioethicists and disability advocates compare expanding Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) to include mental illnesses like schizophrenia to eugenics, they are looking at the systemic pressures involved.

• Coercion via Lack of Support: The core argument is that if a society fails to provide adequate specialized housing, financial security, cutting-edge treatment, and robust community support, offering death as a medical solution is not true autonomy. It becomes a coercive choice. People may choose MAiD not because their illness is inherently untreatable, but because society has made living with it intolerable.
• The Devaluation of “Unproductive” Lives: Historical eugenics was built on the idea of eliminating people deemed an economic or social “burden.” Critics argue that allowing the state to facilitate the death of people with chronic psychiatric conditions mirrors that same dangerous utility-driven philosophy—valuing economic efficiency over human care and support.

Why Eugenics is “Bad Science” (The Problem with the 80% Myth)

Twin and family studies do show that schizophrenia has a heritability rate of roughly 60% to 80%. But eugenics is considered a “bad science” because it completely misinterprets what that statistic means. Early eugenicists operated on a flawed, overly simplistic view of genetics, believing that complex human traits were controlled by single, predictable “bad genes” (like eye color or plant traits).
Modern genomics has shattered that assumption:

• Schizophrenia is Polygenic: There is no single “schizophrenia gene” that can be tested for and snipped out. Instead, the genetic risk is distributed across thousands of tiny, common genetic variants scattered across the entire human genome.
• The Environmental Trigger: Having genetic variants associated with schizophrenia does not automatically cause the condition. It acts as a vulnerability. It requires a complex, highly unpredictable interplay with environmental factors—such as prenatal conditions, immune responses, childhood trauma, or severe neurological stress—to ever manifest.

Why Schizophrenia Cannot Be Wiped from the Gene Pool

To understand why a complete purge would fail biologically, you have to look at how these genetic variants exist in humanity as a whole.

1. The Risk Variants Are Carried by Everyone

The thousands of common genetic variants that create a risk for schizophrenia are widely distributed throughout the entire healthy human population. Most people who develop schizophrenia are born to parents who do not have the condition. Healthy people carry these variants in safe, dormant combinations. When healthy people reproduce, those genes recombine randomly. In the next generation, a new child will inevitably inherit the specific critical mass of variants required to trigger the condition.

2. The Creative and Cognitive Link (Pleiotropy)

In genetics, pleiotropy means that a single gene can influence multiple, completely unrelated traits. Many of the genetic variants that create a vulnerability to schizophrenia are the exact same genes responsible for advanced human cognition, complex language processing, deep empathy, and heightened creativity.

If you were to successfully purge every genetic variant associated with schizophrenia from the human gene pool, you would inadvertently strip away vital elements of human intelligence, imagination, and biological resilience. The risk of the condition is fundamentally baked into the genetic architecture that makes us human.

3. Spontaneous (De Novo) Mutations

A significant percentage of schizophrenia cases are caused by de novo mutations. These are spontaneous genetic alterations (like tiny deletions or duplications in DNA) that occur naturally and randomly during the formation of an egg or sperm, or during early embryonic development. They do not come from the parents’ lineage at all. There is no way to prevent or screen out future spontaneous mutations; they are a fundamental byproduct of cellular replication.
Ultimately, eugenics is bad science because it views human beings as blueprints that can be easily pruned. Biology shows us that we are an interconnected web where the genes that create vulnerability are the very same ones that drive human diversity and evolution.

Me: Do the Amish have schizophrenic members?

Ai LLM: Yes, they absolutely do. Despite living a vastly different lifestyle insulated from modern urban stressors, the Amish experience schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other major psychiatric conditions just like any other human population.
In fact, the Amish are one of the most closely studied populations in the world by geneticists and psychiatrists. Their experience provides a perfect, real-world illustration of why the genetic “wipeout” concept we discussed is biologically impossible.

The Real-World Proof of Polygenic Inheritance

The Amish are what geneticists call a founder population or a closed gene pool. The modern Amish population in North America traces its ancestry back to a relatively small group of a few hundred Anabaptist immigrants who arrived in the 18th century. They marry strictly within their own community, do not marry outsiders, and keep meticulous genealogical records spanning generations.
If schizophrenia were caused by a single “bad gene” or a simple, isolated set of DNA errors, centuries of marrying within a closed loop of families would have either caused the illness to completely take over the entire population, or it would have naturally phased out through genetic drift.
Instead, schizophrenia occurs among the Amish at a stable, predictable rate. This happens because the thousands of tiny genetic variants that contribute to schizophrenia are widely distributed across the healthy DNA of the community’s ancestors. When healthy Amish couples have children, those common genes recombine randomly. Every so often, the genetic dice roll lands in just the right configuration to trigger the condition. It cannot be bred out, even in an isolated population over hundreds of years.

How the Amish Approach Schizophrenia

Because Amish culture values community interdependence and mutual aid above all else, their approach to members struggling with severe mental illness is starkly different from historical mainstream society.

• Deep Social Integration: Rather than institutionalizing or marginalizing individuals with schizophrenia, the Amish traditionally care for them at home. A person experiencing psychosis or chronic cognitive challenges is kept as an active, protected, and valued participant in family life and church districts.
• Acceptance of Modern Medicine: While the Amish live a traditional lifestyle without grid electricity or cars, they are not anti-medicine. They routinely seek out modern medical doctors, psychiatrists, and prescription medications to manage severe biological brain disorders like schizophrenia.
• Culturally Tailored Care: Mainstream psychiatric hospitals can be incredibly jarring for someone who has never used a smartphone, watched television, or worn modern clothing. To solve this, specialized mental health facilities have been established near large Amish settlements (such as Rest Haven in Indiana and Woodside Rest in Ohio). These centers are designed to look like traditional Amish homes and are often staffed by Plain people, allowing members to stabilize on their psychiatric medications while remaining entirely within their cultural comfort zone.
  The Amish experience proves that schizophrenia is a fundamental thread in the shared fabric of human biology. No matter how isolated a group is, how tightly knit their community remains, or how simple their lifestyle is, the genetic architecture of the human mind carries the exact same vulnerabilities everywhere.