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Comment by ValentineC | Hacker News Reader

The pilot targeting only government workers reminds me a lot of Lee Kuan Yew's various eugenics policies:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics#In_Singapore

It certainly doesn't help that the app conveniently targets those between 21 to 35 years of age, which is just before advanced maternal age (also the age where single Singaporeans qualify for public housing).

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Positive eugenics never stopped and there's nothing wrong about it. Also there's nothing wrong with the government promoting the creation of stable families with children born before DS risk exceeds 1/100.

I mean, it sucks if you're a taxpayer over 35 that wants to use the service, especially considering that DS is easy to screen for using modern tests of a mother's blood and Singapore has a reasonable abortion policy

Well that's not really different from any other age-limited policy where the govt sees the biggest bang for the buck, like state-funded uni under 35, dental for kids etc.

Seems pretty different. What is the incremental cost for additional users? I assume it aproximates to zero in this case.

Maybe they estimated the consequences of many 35+ getting married as negative, who knows. Maybe they just wanted better outcomes of the pilot to push on.

The aesthetics of it are definitely the case, but I don't see what else you would choose for a seed group for a project by government services.

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