Human Heredity, Genetics, and Politics During the Third Reich

Clarkson University, Potsdam NY

Investigators

Abstract

Despite an ever-growing scholarly industry on the biomedical sciences as practiced in Nazi Germany, most of the studies are either highly specialized, written in German, or have focused almost exclusively on medicine and medical crimes under National Socialism. There has been a decided lack of secondary literature dealing with the investigation of human genetics under the swastika-the science that informed much of the medical work and medical crimes that have forever tarnished the reputation of the "healing profession" during the Third Reich. The proposed book-length project will provide a corrective to this current historiographical lacuna. It should simultaneously contribute to the scholarly development of the history of the biomedical sciences during the Third Reich and be accessible to a lay audience -especially upper division undergraduates-without compromising intellectual content. The hope is that it will be employed in the university classroom in a wide variety of courses. The volume's scholarly value lies especially in its overarching framework: the interface of human heredity and politics under National Socialism. This is a non-moralizing and non-reductionist paradigm that holds great promise for clarifying the treatment of human heredity under the swastika. The topic is also a timely one, especially given 1) the recent research conducted on the subject in Germany and 2) the perceived links between Nazi human genetics, pre-1945 eugenics, and various contemporary genetic technologies. No less a prominent molecular biologist than James Watson has recently commented on this very issue. Given the concern over social and ethical policy issues surrounding current biotechnological practices, the proposed volume should serve an important social function. It will demonstrate the role of historical contingency in scientific practice. If lay people can be made to understand the historically specific conditions that structured human heredity and eugenics under the swastika, superficial analyses, which unfortunately still color debates over the implementation of current genetic technologies should become less frequent. The volume will thus contribute both to a widening of genetic literacy as well as aid those interested in articulating an informed opinion on current debates surrounding contemporary genetic technologies. Finally, the volume should address an important pedagogical need: educators have argued that students, especially those in the fields of science and engineering, are ill-prepared for the ethical decisions they will confront as professionals. Classroom experience shows that technically-oriented students are not taken in by simplistic historical accounts of ethical problems pertaining to their field. The collection of essays will demonstrate the range of ethical issues stemming from dilemmas that real human geneticists were forced to confront under a dictatorship-many of which are applicable in democratic societies as well. As such, the articles contained in this volume will be relevant to students' own professional lives and to those of other lay people who read the volume.