Engineering Nothingness: The Limits of Human Dignity between Anti-Natalism and Contemporary Eugenics

Abstract

This study explores anti-natalist philosophy and eugenics as contemporary manifestations of the reengineering of human beings and the deconstruction of human nature within the fundamental tension between human dignity, biological constraints, and sociocultural particularities. In this context, the refusal to procreate or the decision to undergo eugenic enhancement ceases to be a purely personal choice. Instead, it becomes an ethical and political instrument that reshapes the individual according to external criteria. The study further undertakes a philosophical deconstruction of the ideological dimensions underpinning these currents. It interrogates the universalist claims of bioethics, highlighting the risks posed to individual freedom and anthropological diversity. From this perspective, anti-natalism and eugenics emerge as arenas of conflict among ethics, politics, and science, in which the limits of control over human life are tested, and the question arises of whether the human being may still be defended as an autonomous agent in the face of attempts at fragmentation and reconfiguration.