The U.S. Dept. of Eugenics

The U.S. Dept. of Eugenics - Part 1
Every day is like the last. I wake up, shower, dress, grab the newspaper and sit down at the breakfast table. Later, my wife cooks while I grill my two sons about their upcoming day at school. They attend the same private academy as the children of the President of the United States.

I am Secretary of the United States Department of Eugenics, founded two years ago to deal with a multitude of problems in our society ranging from low test scores to high unemployment.

A month after his reelection, the President charged me with implementing drastic changes. To thrive, the government had to alter the way it views its subjects.

More money for education failed to raise test scores, and the status quo was no longer acceptable. The only way to improve performance is to ensure smarter children are produced.

Red cards are randomly sent out to citizens who, within the week, must justify their existences. Because they are taking up space and using precious resources, people must prove they have value.

The justifier may bring two members of his or her family to the session. They have five minutes to state their case. A question and answer session follows, also lasting five minutes.

It takes two members of a three judge panel to either alter or retain an existence-status.

While the session takes place, the family members sit in a nearby waiting room. The walls within each of the fifty processing facilities across the United States are extremely thick, though every once in a while you can hear the screams of those deeply in love with a person moments away from making the ultimate sacrifice for the betterment of society.

The surviving family members are given a coupon for a free thirty-minute session with a government approved psychologist. The therapeutic encounters not only strengthen the ability of those impacted to rapidly recover, they also stimulate the economy by putting highly trained mental health specialists to work.

A person successfully able to justify their existence is assured no member of his or her immediate family will stand in front of a panel for at least a year, and they personally will not have to repeat the process for another three years.

I'm proud to say that I trained the first 500 employees and wrote the manual we all follow. I periodically give lectures reminding Department judges which citizens help society prosper and which ones are unnecessary, or a hindrance.

The extermination process is handled by the President's childhood physician. Dr. Fitzsimmons took an oath vowing to create a humane system that preserves the dignity of every individual whose demise is processed in one of our buildings.

Because he, and every anonymous exterminator, is equally likely to find a red card in their mailbox, citizens are confident they'll be treated in a professional manner should the Department find the termination of their existence necessary to improve the general welfare.