The twenty-first century is seeing a continuous, and increasingly bold, biotechnological revolution with the potential to do away with one of humankind's most basic expectations - the expectation of an unmodified genetic inheritance. In wealthy parts of the world, the processes of human reproduction are being radically transformed, while some of our most serious diseases are increasingly seen as predictable and manipulable. But do such technical innovations also risk bringing a new approach to eugenics into being? Today, those with the ability to pay the price are discovering that genes are a highly desirable commodity in a new type of consumer culture. twentieth century, which sought public policies that encouraged the 'fittest' to breed, or laws that segregated the 'feebleminded'. Instead, twenty-first century eugenics is the domain of informed, wealthy private consumers, looking to maximise their individual life chances and those of their offspring. This issue re-examines the complex history of eugenics and explores the extent to which the contemporary focus on genetics and biotechnology is ushering in a new eugenic future in which the category of the human is itself fundamentally at risk.