A Brief History of Eugenics in America: Implications for Medicine in the 21st Century

The eugenics movement in early 20th century America was based on a limited understanding of human heredity, and culminated in a nationwide program of forced sterilization of those deemed unfit to reproduce. A related aspect of the eugenics movement was exclusion of undesirable immigrants who were of “ bad blood. ” What lessons can we learn from America ’ s eugenics movement that will help us answer the difficult questions raised by striking advances in biomedicine in the 21st century? In vitro fertilization, preimplantation genetic diagnosis, non-invasive prenatal fetal screening, gene replacement, genome editing and reproductive cloning will require us to address what it means to be a “ normal ” human. This master class will consider the historical context of these powerful technologies as well as their social and ethical implications.For more information go tohttps://history.nih.gov/Air date: 4/22/2021 12:00:00 PM
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