Taking Eugenics Seriously: Three Generations of ??? are Enough?

Recent media attention to the history of the eugenics movement in American has resulted in apologies from the governors of Virginia, Oregon, North Carolina, South Carolina and California for state mandated surgical sterilizations under eugenics laws. This article tracks the genesis of the eugenics apology movement, which began with a monument to the infamous case of Buck v. Bell that was erected just as heightened media coverage of milestones in human genome research filled the headlines. The article also explores the involvement of most early geneticists in the eugenics movement, attempting to put into historical context both the hopeful side of eugenics that made it so popular early in the 20th Century, as well as the dark memories we normally associate with eugenics in that era. The article draws parallels between the urge to eradicate disease embraced within the eugenics movement, and the similar urge often used to argue for new genetic technologies, such as prenatal genetic diagnosis. It is concluded with an echo of the Buck case, exhorting readers to avoid simplistic moralisms in reflecting on historic cases like Buck, in favor of a more searching analysis that would require us to understand our own eugenic impulses

Virginia Supreme Court Endorses Medical Confidentiality Claim

This book about outlines the relationshop between our identity as members of groups-ethnic, national, religious and gender-and the language varieties important to each group.viii, 270 p.; 22 c

When Harvard Said No to Eugenics: The J. Ewing Mears Bequest, 1927

James Ewing Mears (1838-1919) was a founding member of the Philadelphia Academy of Surgery. His 1910 book, The Problem of Race Betterment, laid the groundwork for later authors to explore the uses of surgical sterilization as a eugenic measure. Mears left $60,000 in his will to Harvard University to support the teaching of eugenics. Although numerous eugenic activists were on the Harvard faculty, and who of its Presidents were also associated with the eugenics movement, Harvard refused the Mears gift. The bequest was eventually awarded to Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. This article explains why Harvard turned its back on a donation that would have supported instruction in a popular subject. Harvard\u27s decision illustrates the range of opinion that existed on the efficacy of eugenic sterilization at the time. The Mears case also highlights a powerful irony: the same week Harvard turned down the Mears legacy, the U.S. Supreme Court endorsed eugenic sterilization in the landmark case of Buck v. Bell. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., graduate of Harvard and former member of its law faculty wrote the opinion in that case, including the famous conclusion: Three generations of imbeciles are enough. Copyright © 2015, The John Hopkins University Press. This article first appeared in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, Volume 57, Issue 3, Summer, 2014, pages 374-392