Overweight mothers give birth to offspring who become even heavier, resulting in amplification of obesity across generations, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers in Houston who found that chemical changes in the ways genes are expressed -- a phenomenon called epigenetics -- could affect successive generations of mice.

"There is an obesity epidemic in the United States and it's increasingly recognized as a worldwide phenomenon," said Dr. Robert A. Waterland, assistant professor of pediatrics -- nutrition at BCM and lead author of the study that appears in the International Journal of Obesity. "Why is everyone getting heavier and heavier? One hypothesis is that maternal obesity before and during pregnancy affects the establishment of body weight regulatory mechanisms in her baby. Maternal obesity could promote obesity in the next generation."

This is why the idea of selective reproduction in society may not be so bad after all; imagine how America's population will look like in 50 years. Do you see all the obese, stupid people wandering around, eating their hamburgers, pressing on their remote controls, driving their SUVs to work, figuring out how to use the computer, taking all the risk loans on the banks? Can you see it in front you? Now, ask youself again: is it really such a bad idea to prevent these people from having children, that will be heavier and possibly more stupid than their parents?