Genetic Determinism Then and Now

Confronting the Legacy of Eugenics

The 2011 Ackerman Symposium, featuring four leading historians of eugenics, will be held in conjunction with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s traveling exhibition, “Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race.”

Since the Nazi era, the specter of eugenics has haunted discussion regarding biological determinism and the ethical implications of genetic screening and intervention. We will examine the broad history of eugenics—especially its unfolding in the United States in the pre-Nazi era—to frame and inform contemporary discussions of genetic determinism and genetic screening. Fundamentally, we wish to ask: what can we actually learn from the history of eugenics as we continue to engage the ethical implications of contemporary and emerging genetic technologies?

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Saving Lives The A. Bernard Ackerman Endowment for the Culture of Medicine established a professorship and supports a wide range of activities that encourage collaboration among the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), Harvard Medical School (HMS), and other departments throughout the University.
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