Advocating Eugenics in the UK Department of Education
By Pete Shanks,
Huffington Post
| 10. 28. 2013
Dominic Cummings, a senior adviser to the UK Secretary of State for Education, recently provoked a flurry of complaints by allegedly claiming that "a child's performance has more to do with genetic makeup than the standard of his or her education." In response, he insisted that he had "warned of the dangers of public debates being confused by misunderstanding of such technical terms." Whatever you may think of that defense, it's worth looking a little more closely, because Cummings' technocratic, effectively eugenic, definitely gene-focused approach is dangerously close to affecting public policy.
Cummings has been called "arguably the most brilliant" special adviser in the UK government, but he also seems to be viewed as something of a loose cannon who has been blamed for leaks and criticized for the use of "colourful" language. He was awarded a First in History at Oxford, and has a background in activism against the UK adopting the Euro, and then controversial stints in the Conservative Party apparatus.
As an education adviser, he wrote what is called, oddly, a "private thesis" for the... see more
Related Articles
By Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 12.05.2022
In a bold attempt to stop the progress of some cases of Alzheimer’s disease, a group of researchers is trying something new — injecting a protective gene into patients’ brains.
The trial involved just five patients with a particular genetic...
By Nick Paul Taylor, Fierce Biotech | 12.05.2022
The FDA has set out its reasons for putting Verve Therapeutics’ high cholesterol gene editing therapy on hold. Officials want additional data to allay concerns that patients could pass on the edited genes to their children before they lift the...
By Emily Mullin, Wired | 12.05.2022
Some of Steven Pipe’s hemophilia patients consider themselves cured. In a trial Pipe led from 2018 to 2021, they received a one-time gene therapy meant to override a DNA mutation that causes spontaneous bleeding episodes, some of them severe and...
By Jessica Hamzelou, MIT Technology Review | 11.16.2022
“Who wants to live forever?” The immortal words of Freddie Mercury blast from the speakers as blue lights swivel around the room and a smoky mist floats up from the stage in front of me. If the audience is anything...
