History, Eugenics and
Genetics
Personal Genetics Education Project (pgEd)
Harvard Medical School - Wu Laboratory
www.pged.org
The Beery twins, Noah and Alexis
http://the-scientist.com/author/lucy-reading/ (2011)
Genome sequencing technology
Oxford Nanopore MinION
Molly and Adam Nash
Fanconi anemia (disorder of DNA repair)
Cure: PGD, umbilical cord blood
stem cells
http://tvnoviny.sk/sekcia/spravy/zahranicne/vo-francuzsku-sa-narodilo-prve-dizajnerske-dieta.html
Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD)
Schwartz 2011
Jewish News
Public attitudes regarding the use of PGD
Men
Women
Fatal Transplants Adult
illness
Gender Strength &
Intelligence
http://www.dnapolicy.org/resources/2006_Hudson_PGD_public_policy_and_public_attitudes.pdf
American eugenics movement
Big idea: Improving
society and
humanity via
selective breeding
and sterilization.
First half of the 20th
century.
State and Federal laws
addressing issues ranging from
immigration to mandatory
sterilization.
Burlington Free Press, January 24, 1925, p. 1.
Photo by Jacob Riis, courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York
http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/view_image.pl?id=348
“Fitter Family” contests: 1920s – 1940s
Georgia State Fair 1924
http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/792.aspx
Laws Against Interracial Marriage
http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/html/eugenics/static/images/958.html
Carrie Buck
http://www.saponitown.com/eugenics-carrie-buck/eugenics-carrie-buck.htm
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
“...society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from
continuing their kind...
Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”
http://www.hsl.virginia.edu/historical/eugenics/
Raymond Pearl
Eugenics preaching is “contrary
to the best established facts of
genetical science.”
Carnegie Institution
Visiting Committee, 1935:
Most of the ERO’s work was
without scientific merit and it
should cease sponsorship of
programs in immigration
restriction, sterilization, and
race betterment.
http://www.dnalc.org/
“We do not stand alone”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wir_stehen_nicht_allein.jpg
Nuremberg Code
4 of the 10 directives for Human Subjects Research
1. The voluntary consent of the human subject is
absolutely essential…
2. The experiment should be such as to yield fruitful
results for the good of society, …
4. The experiment should be so conducted as to avoid
all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and
injury.
9. During the course of the experiment the human
subject should be at liberty to bring the experiment to
an end…
Pamphlet from the Human Betterment League
of North Carolina – 1950
http://www.wfae.org/
Protests against forced sterilization
http://rt.com/usa/news/north-carolinaeugenics-vote-372/
Los Angeles Times
Elaine Riddick –
sterilized without her knowledge at the age of 14
http://abcnews.go.com
North Carolina
•Eugenic sterilization law enacted February 18, 1929.
•Sterilization suitable for “mentally defective persons.”
•“The 7,600 victims of the program, which was
dissolved in 1977, were largely women and
disproportionately members of minorities.” (New York
Times).
•Any person (e.g., a neighbor) could request someone
be sterilized, which would then be considered by a state
sterilization board.
•After 10 years of debate, the NC legislature passed a
budget to provide $10 million to victims. (As of 2013,
roughly 200 victims have come forward, so each would
receive about $50,000.)
•This is the first time reparations have been granted to
victims of eugenic sterilization.
Presidential Commission on Bioethical Issues
http://www.bioethics.gov/