Nicholas Agar's 1998 paper "Liberal Eugenics" named a position that grounds genetic choice in parental autonomy rather than state direction

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Philosopher Nicholas Agar titled a 1998 paper "Liberal Eugenics," later expanded in a 2004 book, arguing for a form of eugenics distinguished from historical state programs by resting on individual parental autonomy rather than centralized direction. Robert Sparrow's paper "Liberalism and Eugenics" (working paper; revised as Sparrow 2011, Australasian Journal of Philosophy 89(3): 499–517 — the working paper's cover page dates the revision to 2010, but the issue of record is 2011) summarizes the position: "In his writings on 'liberal eugenics', Nicholas Agar has championed a modern form of eugenics, emphasizing parental autonomy and informed by the historical experience of previous eugenics programs, which might avoid the repugnant consequences associated with eugenics in the past."

This is the term Jonathan Anomaly — already in this vault as the bioethicist who publicly defends Heliospect Genomics' AI-driven embryo-IQ-ranking service — uses to describe his own position, roughly 26–28 years after Agar coined it. Agar's original paper has not been read directly this session (paywalled, Public Affairs Quarterly 12/2); the claim recorded here — that Agar named and championed the position — rests on Sparrow's Tier 2 secondary account, which clears the sourcing floor for a historical/definitional claim of this kind.