The Continuing Relevance of America's Eugenic Legacy

March 29, 2017
Paul A. Lombardo

The history of eugenics is often characterized as a cautionary tale of life in the bad old days, when pseudoscientific assumptions about genetic determinism provided a respectable veneer that enabled barely submerged racism, xenophobia, and blatant discrimination against persons with disabilities to take root in American law. Some argue that, today, our science is sound, our attitudes enlightened; we need not be hobbled by fear of long-expired bad eugenic habits.

In this Medical Center Hour, Paul Lombardo, who has written extensively on eugenics and the law in America, challenges such assumptions, asserting that the same tendencies that led to a century of eugenic law and policy continue to inform our public debate over democratic values and the proper role of science as a tool for solving social problems.

The Joan Echtenkamp Klein Memorial Lecture in the History of the Health Sciences
Co-presented with the History of the Health Sciences Lecture Series, Historical Collections, Claude Moore Health Sciences Library

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