Eugenics Isn't Just History
WEBINAR: Thursday, 10/27/22, 7:00–8:30 PM EDT
On October 27, 7:00-8:30 PM EDT, FAIR in Medicine will hold a free webinar titled, “Eugenics: The Curse That Keeps on Cursing.” (Register at this link.) We’ll talk about the immense damage the fashionable and “progressive” push for eugenics did in the last century and about the continuing impulse to “improve” mankind by commandeering science toward that end. Those registering for the 90-minute event will gain temporary access to a stunning and disquieting two-hour 2016 PBS documentary: The Eugenics Crusade: What’s Wrong with Perfect? (preview below). We suggest watching the documentary before the webinar, though it’s not essential to do so.
Webinar panelists will discuss the history of eugenics and hear about its continuing manifestations. From the webinar web page:
“Today’s technologies—pre-natal and pre-implantation diagnosis, gene editing with CRISPR, and surrogate pregnancy—would make [early eugenicists] envious. Such technologies create their own imperative, if not met with a rigorous moral analysis that navigates between uncritical acceptance and reflexive Luddite opposition.”
Four of us will participate in the panel discussion. We are FAIR in Medicine Fellow Mark Buchanan, MD; Stanford Medical School neurobiology scholar William B. Hurlbut, MD; Louisville attorney / bioethicist / Down Syndrome advocate Mark Leach; and me — health economist / journalist / musician and FAIR in Medicine Fellow Robert Graboyes, PhD.
For those with time and interest, we also recommend some pre-readings (or post-readings). These include “From Small Beginnings: The Road to Genocide”, “Deadly Medicine”, multiple pieces by Yuval Noah Harari, and “The Last Children of Down Syndrome”. I’ve recently written two pieces on eugenics. “The Briar and the Rose” explains how the (enormously valuable) field of mathematical statistics was largely invented as a way to give a scientific veneer to snobbery and racism. “Shockley versus Shockley” explores why it is important to avoid the current vogue for censorship and safe spaces—and to hear the words of awful people with awful ideas.
