Don't Turn The Roast Back On In The Oven Yet!

Another post from the book group we had at Multiply

While I enjoyed "State Of Fear"  very much,  as I always like stories that make me think,  at the close of the book Michael Crichton writes an appendix that really caught my attention.   It can be read in its entirety HERE.  But in case you do not want to go to the site and read  all of it,  here is a quote of some of the contents:

"Imagine that there is a new scientific theory that warns of an impending crisis, and points to a way out. . . 

 Its supporters included Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Winston Churchill. It was approved by Supreme Court justices Oliver Wendell Holmes and Louis Brandeis, who ruled in its favor. The famous names who supported it included Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone; activist Margaret Sanger; botanist Luther Burbank; Leland Stanford, founder of Stanford University; the novelist H. G. Wells; the playwright George Bernard Shaw; and hundreds of others. Nobel Prize winners gave support. Research was backed by the Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations. The Cold Springs Harbor Institute was built to carry out this research, but important work was also done at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford and Johns Hopkins. Legislation to address the crisis was passed in states from New York to California. 

These efforts had the support of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Medical Association, and the National Research Council. It was said that if Jesus were alive, he would have supported this effort.

All in all, the research, legislation and molding of public opinion surrounding the theory went on for almost half a century. Those who opposed the theory were shouted down and called reactionary, blind to reality, or just plain ignorant. But in hindsight, what is surprising is that so few people objected. . . 

The theory was eugenics, and its history is so dreadful --- and, to those who were caught up in it, so embarrassing --- that it is now rarely discussed. But it is a story that should be well know to every citizen, so that its horrors are not repeated."

I wanted to make sure that the topic of this appendix was mentioned here at BAM sometime during the month of discussion of this book.   I have strong feelings that we need to review the errors of eugenics periodically to prevent any thoughts that might lead us toward that path again.  Please visit the following website and spend some time at your leisure.  Click HERE.