The Bare Replacement

Geneticists' and Bioethicists Support of Eugenics, from after the Second World War to the Human Genome Project

Bibliographic Data

ID4454296
AuthorsChristopher R Donohue (0000-0003-4286-5427, National Human Genome Research Institute, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume43
Issue94
Pages225-252
Publication date2023-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueRevista Brasileira de História (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0102-0188 • E-ISSN: 1806-9347
PublisherFapUNIFESP (SciELO) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1590/1806-93472023v43n94-12
OpenAlexW4389922277
SCIELO_PIDS0102-01882023000300225
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited36

Using a combination of archival and secondary sources, this article argues that scientists and bioethicists after the Second World War advocated a wide variety of eugenic practices and strongly supported the development of eugenics, strengthened by advances in medicine, human genetics, and population genetics. I detail extensive research in both the Curt Stern and the American Eugenics Society Papers (American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia), uncovering novel defenses of eugenics and its integration in sciences after the Second World War by key figures such as Curt Stern and Theodosius Dobzhansky. Moreover, I relate to Richard Lewontin's participation in a Princeton conference sponsored by the American Eugenics Society in 1965. This article is also the first to not only describe geneticists' defense and development of eugenic ideas but also details bioethicists' defense of this inhumane and unscientific ideology until the dawn of the Human Genome Project in the late 1980s

Environmental ethics · Eugenics · Ideology · Political science · Politics · Population · Sociology · Stern · World War II · History · Law · Medical History and Research · Philosophy · Race, Genetics, and Society · Reproductive Health and Technologies

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