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27 Seton Hall L. Rev. 893 (1996-1997)
Past as Prologue: Sobering Thoughts on Genetic Enthusiasm

handle is hein.journals/shlr27 and id is 903 raw text is: Past as Prologue: Sobering Thoughts on Genetic Enthusiasm Lori B. Andrews* Racism, prejudice, and genetics have made for a socially combustible and often deadly mix. The mixture has proven so toxic that a strong case can be made that applying knowledge from the realm of human genetics to public policy has led to far more misery, confusion, and suffering in the twentieth century than it has to human betterment. At the beginning of the twentieth century, scientists and lawyers- and the doctrines of science and law-made inappropriate use of genetics. Now, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, genetics has reappeared as a medical and social panacea. Yet the scientific and policy communities have not taken to heart the lessons of the past and are repeating some of the same mistakes. As a century earlier, the science of genetics is being oversold and used for political purposes. Even well-meaning genetics programs are creating unwarranted risks because they are being adopted prematurely, without sufficient concern for their psychological and social impact, and in a way that further disadvantages the least powerful groups in society. I. HISToRIcAL MISUSE OF GENETICS IN THE UNITED STATES Both science and law have taken a number of false turns in their as- sessment and use of genetic information. In the late 1800s, a majority of the geneticists in this country believed that one could extend genetic principles to explain human behavior.2 Traits such as feeblemindedness,3 * Yale University, 1975, B.A., Yale Law School, 1978, J.D. Professor of Law, Chicago-Kent College of Law and Research Fellow, American Bar Foundation. Re- search for this paper was supported by grant R01-HG01277-01 from the National Center for Human Genome Research, National Institutes of Health. 1 Arthur L. Caplan, Handle with Care: Race, Class, and Genetics, in JUSTICE AND THE HUMAN GENOME PROJEcr 30-45, 32-33 (Timothy F. Murphy & Marc A. Lappe eds., 1994). See generally KENNETH M. LUDMEER, GENETICS AND AMERICAN SocIETY (1972). 3 See Jon Beckwith, Social and Political Uses of Genetics in the United States: Past and Present, in ANNALS N.Y. ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 46, 47, 265 (1976) (citation omit- ted).

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