Bio-ethics commission where many TI's spoke

"Yet the Progressive Era was not an unqualified boon, particularly in the realm of bioethics. While everyday workers saw improvements in their lives, there was also a resurgence of racism and segregation, encouraged by a “science [that] increasingly endorsed many Americans’ belief that some races were better than others” (McGerr 2003, 192). And the same impetus that inspired academics to fight for workers’ rights also caused some of them to associate themselves with eugenics and social Darwinism. Tainted as it is with the horrors of Nazi Germany, it is hard to imagine eugenics as a progressive movement. Yet eugenics was widely viewed as the progressive biology of the day, justifying a public policy that included the forced sterilization of “inferior” people such as the mentally retarded, the deaf, and certain ethnic and racial groups. No less a progressive leader than President Theodore Roosevelt said “We have no business perpetuating citizens of the wrong type.” (Moreno 2007) Although progressives were not alone in embracing eugenics, and although some of them were among its toughest critics, progressivism must bear its share of the blame for attempting to elevate a biological theory to pubic policy."
http://www.scienceprogress.org/2010/04/bioethics-progressing/

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Annie March 3, 2011 at 5:32am

Peter, thanks for the shared information. In your opinion, what was the honest feeling? When I saw and listened to it, it somehow felt to be taken serious by the panel. What will be the outcome of this, I heard they said, we will notify this and then?? Thanks to you and all the victims that made their statements and testimony for how horrible this situation is for all of us.//Annie
Jay Sinn March 3, 2011 at 4:46am

"Yet the Progressive Era was not an unqualified boon, particularly in the realm of bioethics. While everyday workers saw improvements in their lives, there was also a resurgence of racism and segregation, encouraged by a “science [that] increasingly endorsed many Americans’ belief that some races were better than others” (McGerr 2003, 192). And the same impetus that inspired academics to fight for workers’ rights also caused some of them to associate themselves with eugenics and social Darwinism. Tainted as it is with the horrors of Nazi Germany, it is hard to imagine eugenics as a progressive movement. Yet eugenics was widely viewed as the progressive biology of the day, justifying a public policy that included the forced sterilization of “inferior” people such as the mentally retarded, the deaf, and certain ethnic and racial groups. No less a progressive leader than President Theodore Roosevelt said “We have no business perpetuating citizens of the wrong type.” (Moreno 2007) Although progressives were not alone in embracing eugenics, and although some of them were among its toughest critics, progressivism must bear its share of the blame for attempting to elevate a biological theory to pubic policy."
http://www.scienceprogress.org/2010/04/bioethics-progressing/

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