Genetics have a future in scientific inquiry to realize potential discoveries, but only if the dangers are not forgotten, three speakers said Thursday.
The lecture was the last in the 15-part series Medical Ethics and the Holocaust, which began in September to address the scientific practices that began in Nazi Germany during and prior to World War II.
"Eugenics is the science dealing with the genetic factors of a race and the improvement of those qualities," Sheldon Rubenfeld, Baylor College of Medicine clinical professor, said. "It led to methods some would call healing and some would call killing."
Christine Rosen, a senior editor of The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology ‘ Society, defined eugenics as "what enlightened, progressive people thought would improve society."
Although eugenics started off as a harmless science, it evolved into a form of selective breeding, Rubenfeld said.
Rubenfeld said that Adolf Hitler began to exterminate the lives of those he considered to be genetically inferior.
He also said that Hitler referred to 13 countries, including the United States, which used sterilization, a form of eugenics.
Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, said the Jim Crow laws in the southern United States following the Civil War that forbade blacks from mixing with whites were also a form of eugenics.
The lecture centered on a discussion on the role of eugenics in world history as well as an analysis of current advanced forms of eugenics in science.
Collins said that eugenics has a future in science in the cure and prevention of diseases, but it will be controversial.
Collins said that the convergence of genetics and religion is becoming more prevalent in society.
"Can we study these DNA molecules without encountering religious and ethical challenges and questions about ourselves?" he asked. Rosen also said eugenics has the potential to benefit society, but only if people are careful.
"Science can’t answer the question ‘are we equal,’" Rosen said. "The one thing we haven’t managed to change is human nature. We shouldn’t lose sight of the dangers of eugenics as we look forward to the incredible benefits of this new science."
