The American Society of Human Genetics Struggles to Face Its Past
By Robert Resta and Diane B. Paul,
The DNA Exchange
| 02. 15. 2023
The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) recently released Facing Our History – Building An Equitable Future Initiative, a report on the role of the organization and geneticists more generally in past injustices, including eugenics, sickle cell screening, and perpetuating inaccurate information about XYY syndrome and racial stereotypes about intelligence. About 3 years ago one of us (RR) authored a three-part series in this space that explored the role of eugenics in shaping the ASHG and the views of its leadership (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). Some of that content was cited in the ASHG report.
There is much to be admired in ASHG’s willingness to acknowledge the roles the organization and its leadership played in respect both to eugenics and social injustice generally. However, the report also has several flaws. Here we focus our critique on our areas of interest and expertise – its account of the history of eugenics, which includes assertions that have been widely challenged by historians (without any acknowledgment of their contested status) as well as factual errors and omissions... see more
Related Articles
By Ian Sample and Hannah Devlin, The Guardian | 03.06.2023
The next generation of advanced genetic therapies raises profound medical and ethical issues that must be thrashed out to ensure the game-changing technology benefits patients and society, a group of world-leading experts has warned.
Medicines based on powerful gene editing...
By Natasha Mitchell, ABC (feat. CGS' Katie Hasson) | 03.17.2023
Chinese scientist Dr Jiankui He flouted the law and bioethics basics to create the world's first CRISPR gene edited babies. Now out of jail, he's on Twitter recruiting patients and raising funds for more trials, this time in adults not embryos. An...
This week in London, some 400 people from around the world – including scientists, bioethicists, patients, journalists, civil society groups, and the interested public – gathered for the Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing to discuss the current and future capabilities and challenges for the technology. Many others viewed the proceedings online.
Toward the end of the three-day event, the Summit organizing committee’s concluding statement appeared in each participant’s inbox. Committee chair Robin Lovell-Badge read it aloud. On reproductive...
By Philip Ball, Prospect | 03.06.2023
Imagine you’re planning to have a baby and are told there’s a method that can select the embryo to increase, by 2 per cent, the chance of them getting into a top school. Would you use it? A new survey...