Fraser, Alexander

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The Linacre QuarterlyVolume 2 | Number 1 Article 1December 1933The Answer of Biology to Proposed Measures ofEugenicsAlexander FraserFollow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnqRecommended CitationFraser, Alexander (1933) "The Answer of Biology to Proposed Measures of Eugenics," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 2 : No. 1 , Article 1.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol2/iss1/1THE LINACRE QUARTERLY Editor B1tsiness Editor ANTHONY BASSLER, M.~.1 F .A.C. P . 7 84 Park Ave., New York City MATTHEW G. GoLDEN, M .D., F.A.C.S. I Nevins Street, Brooklyn, N . Y. Associate Editors Da. PETER DuLLIGAN DR. }AMES McGRATH 272 J efferson Ave., Brooklyn , N. Y . 309 East Mosholu Parkway, Bronx, N. Y . Da. EDWARD L. K tcKHAM DR. J, J. W ALSH 270 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, Mass. 110 West 74 th Street, New York City Address all communications as followr.: Art ic~es and notes for publication-OR. A N TH ON Y \ V. BASS LER, F.A .C.P ., 784 Park Avenue , New York City; subscriptions and advertising information-OR. MATTHEW G. GOLDE N, F .A .C.S., I Nevins Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.; f or informati on Qertain-ing to th e formati on of new Guilds and applic:ttion b:anks, address: Mtss MADELI NE McGREGOR, VOL. 2 Exec. Sec. , 477 Madison Avenue, New York City. D ECEMBE R , 1 933 THE ANSWER OF BIOLOGY TO PROPOSED MEASURES OF EUGENICS By A L E X A NDE R FRA SE R , A.B., M.D., C.M. Professor of Pathological Hi stol ogy at New York University and Bellevue H ospi tal Medical College Tn1s is a summa ry of a very in teresting illu trated lecture delive red to the Ma nhattan G uild at its fall meeting. It is a convincing a nswer to those eugenists who a re a t p resent displaying an a rdent zeal fo r a nd an a biding faith in ste rilization as a eugenic measure.-EmToR's NoTE. N O. l SLIDES were thrown on the screep illustrating the theory of genetics based on the Mendelian Jaw of " segregation" and the inter-play of "dominant" and "recessive" genes . Pictures i1lustra ting the N eo-Mendelian t ransmiss ion forms of "blending" and "mosaic" a rrange-ment wer e a] o shown. L et me say here that the great body of the defective char act eri tics that concern us in t his discussion a r e due t o "recessive" d efective genes, i.e., it r equires two of these genes in the same p air to give the individual charact eri tic, so that a per son may h ave one of such defective genes and be p erfectiy normal. A p er son that has defect s in both genes of any pair that has to do with the form a tion of the bra in, e.g ., will be "feebleminded" but a p erson having only one such gene in the pair will be normal or p erhaps superior. • The hope of eugenics is based on the possibility of elimina ting from the race all the defective genes. L et us grant the eugenist the most favorable condit ions, viz., tha t all defective characterist ics are due to defects in a single p air of genes and that these genes a r e in the same position in the chromosomes of bot h p a rents, and to simplify matters let us t ake the instance of so-cal1ed "feeblemindedness"; then we can calculate math ematical1y the r esu] t of sterilization of all the feeble-minded per ons in a na tion. Such calculation has been made by R. A. [ 5 ] THE LINAORE QUARTERLY Fisher, E. M. East, and R . C. Punnett. (Published in the Journal of Heredity, 1917 and 1927.) The result of the computation may be summarized in the words of H. S. Jennings-"if the proportion of feebleminded in the population is one per thousand, to decrease that proportion to one per ten thousand will require about 68 generations, or two to three thousand years, if it is done merely by stopping the propagation of all feebleminded individuals" ("B.iological Basis of Human Nature"). This meagre result is due to the fact that in each generation the great bulk of the feebleminded come not from the mating of feebleminded persons but from the "carriers," i.e., persons who are normal or even superior, but carry in their chromosomes a single defective gene which, when mated with a similar gene from another "carrier," will give rise to a feebleminded individual. More-over, these physically well-marked cases of feeblemindedness which transmit their defective genes by this simple "single pair" method play very little part in the propagation of defectives for the obvious reason that they are prevented from doing so by natural, family, and state influences. In this, at best, very limited group of defectives, with a granted theoretically over-simplified mode ·of inheritance, the only hope for the eugenist, then, lies in the possibility of stopping the propaga-tion of the carriers . But we have seen that with our present knowl-edge there is no way of detecting this group, as they are normal, or even superior, in their phenotypical characteristics. But there are all grades of feeblemindedness, and, furthermore, the mental defects may be compensated for by accompanying character-istics either good, such as "ambition," or bad, such as envy, greed, inferiority complexes, etc., so that the individual may succeed in pass-ing as a leading u eful citizen . The eugenist fails to realize that the genes . are not dead material bricks in a building, but living units, each reacting with its neighbors, and all reacting together in an organized living totality. From such a group who is to pick out the members due for sterilization? There certainly would be considerable difference of opinion and it is quite possible that so many eugenists would be elected that the whole eugenic movement would be stopped. A still heavier blow to eugenics comes from the fact that the great body of defectives that trouble society do not propagate by this simple "same-pair gene defect" method, but by the method of "diverse genes." One outstanding fallacy of the theory of eugenics is the view that each individual characteristic has its corresponding specific gene. The truth is that each individual characteristic, such as the color of the eye, has hundreds and probably thousands of genes contributing to its make-up which are located in different places in the gene map. For example, in the fruit fly, 150 genes located in different positions in the X chromo-[ 6] ----·--····------THE LINACRe QUARTERLY some have been found, any one of which, when defective, will cause a difference in the color of the eye. An illustration of this diverse arrangement of defective genes is shown. Here are two parents, both of whom are feebleminded, but their defective genes are in different positions, those of the father in the second pair while those of the mother are in the fourth. The children, as you see, are all normal or may be superior, but they are all carriers. I have recently seen a very superior individual whose parents were both typical cases of well-marked feeblemindedness. The more closely related the parents, the more likely are their defective genes to be in the same pair, and the more distant the relation the more likely are they to be in diverse pairs. The Church has always recognized this fundamental biologic law and has prohibited intermarriage between those of close blood-relationship. The above-discussed sharply defined pathological traits, viz., feeble-mindedness, insanity, etc., form only a very small part of the social incompatibilities and maladjustments which constitute the difficulties in the way of ideal organization of society. The chief problem has to do with the dependents, the delinquents and all grades of criminals. In his proposed dealings with these, the eugenist exhibits another fun-damental biological fallacy, viz., in regarding the inherited genes as independent entities. A gene is not "something that gives rise to a unit characteristic" but "something that in a given environment gives rise to a certain characteristic." The interdependence of gene and environ.ment is similar to that between the positive and negative poles of a magnet. It is only at the extreme ends that genes and environ-ment take on a semblance of independence. In the great majority of cases the genes are "pliable" and result in characteristics which are determined by the environment as much as by their own constitution. And this quality of the genes is fundamental. Emerson found varieties of maize growing in the fields some of which are red and some green. If the red and green are crossed, the inheritance is Mendelian, which shows that the· difference is due to genes. But if the red varieties are grown without sunlight, they are green, so the difference is due to environment. Such differences have also been shown to be due to differences in food, temperature, humidity, dryness, etc. An anomaly is 'shown in the fruit fly, which sometimes arises spontaneously when bred in its natural environment, which includes a moist atmosphere. It breeds true to Mendel's law and, hence, the anomaly is due 'to defective genes. But breed the fruit fly in a dry atmosphere and they return to normal. Hence the change is due to environment. Many such cases could be enumerated. So it is in the great group of human beings which we are now considering. It is a moral certainty, says Professor Woodruff of Yale, that if the infants Darwin and Lincoln-[ 71 THE LINACRE QUARTERLY which, by the way, were born on the same day- had been exchanged by their mothers, we should not have heard of either of them. In the case of our over-numerous young American criminal we are dealing with a make-up of such "pliable" gene.'- (young people "easily led") -which in an environment of poverty with consequent loss of oppor-tunity, bad home surroundings, mat erialistic education, lack of moral and, above all, of r eligious training, give rise to all grades of defec-tives-dependents, delinquents, and all grades of criminals, whereas the same genes in an entirely different, wholesome environment would develop the characteristics of the ideal, model citizen. It seems a fundamental law of human nature that in dealing with such questions there are always men who can see only the extremes-in this case the eugenists at one end and the V\T atsonian behaviorists at the other. Only in the Aristotelian and scholastic principle of the "happy mean" do we find the solution . I n conclusion, we may say that the ideal of eugenics is a worthy one, but that the measures so fa1· proposed for its accomplishment are "mpracticable, even when they are not immoral. Even if we could by means of some happy discovery detect ali" the hidden defective genes in the race, and by some other happy method get rid of them all, we have abundant evidence that they are being manufactured in normal indi-viduals perhap a fast as we could possibly get rid of them. Finally, in r ecent years we see intimation of even more serious difficulty in the way of practical eugenics and this is concerned with the great differences of opinion which may ari e not with regard to defective genes but as to the value of the individual characteristics themselves. Just what i · the "good" man and who are the "undesir-ables"? The wide pread movement in the world today aimed at uproot-ing and destroying our e tablished institutions and traditions is only too evident, and to the extent that it ucceeds will there be a chaos of opinions on this question. With such uncertainty as to what the ideal is, no radical eugenic measures could be attempted. ALONG HIGHWAY AND BYWAY T HE DRIVE AGAINST CHRISTIAN MoRALITY. Survivals and New .Arrivals is a book by the brilliant Catholic apologist Hilaire Belloc, which appeared in 1929. In its analysis of the present set-up in the attack on Catholicism it says that the new arrivals in the battle-line opposing the Church are all characterized by this note : "they are at i sue with the Church not directly on doctrine, as were their elder , but on morals. Morals derive from doctrine, of course, and indirectly the quarrel is doctrinal, as all human conflicts are." [ 8] 

The Answer of Biology to Proposed Measures of Eugenics

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The Answer of Biology to Proposed Measures of Eugenics

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