"Ethical Worries," IQ, And Diversity
07/10/2010
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In the Chinese story Steve Sailer references below, the Washington Post writer says

"Now a full-time employee while continuing his studies, Zhao is turning his attention to a topic Western researchers have shied away from because of ethical worries: Zhao plans to study the genes of 1,000 of his best-performing classmates at a top high school in Beijing and compare them, he said, "with 1,000 normal kids."[China pushing the envelope on science, and sometimes ethics, By John Pomfret, June 28, 2010 ]

When I saw the headline about "Sometimes Ethics," I thought they meant stem cell research, and experiments on aborted fetuses. The Chinese don't have to worry about the Christian Right, because they're Communists—they put Christians and rightists in concentration camps and shoot them and beat them with electric batons for celebrating Christmas.

But the thing that the Washington Post is worried about is an IQ study. Leon Kass, a "bioethicist" who opposes all that stuff and more also opposes any research into race and IQ, saying

"It seemed to me then that a society founded on the self-evident truth of human equality - the equal dignity of each human being - had no business ranking racial groups, especially on the basis of alleged - scientifically measurable differences - in the powers that most make us human. "

I've explained repeatedly what's wrong with this view, starting with "Disparate Impact" law. But the Chinese don't have this problem! They won't have an embarrassing graph that shows racial disparities, which would make Leon Kass cry. Every single one of the participants in this study will be Chinese.

If the Chinese do press forward in the study of intelligence, it may not be because they're a Communist tyranny with no "ethical concerns," but simply because they're not diverse.

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