Are There Genes for Intelligence — And Is It Racist to Ask?
By Robin Marantz Henig,
National Geographic
| 12. 11. 2015
[cites CGS Advisory Board member Dorothy Roberts]
Some people are taller than others. Others have wider hips, lighter hair, longer toes, or flatter feet. No one disputes that our genes help determine how we look. But what about intelligence—is it an inherited trait?
And as our ability to tinker with the genomes of human embryos comes closer to reality, will creating babies with enhanced intelligence be far behind?
Before taking that leap, we would have to understand the genes that contribute to intelligence. Some scientists are on the hunt for such “smart genes,” and their research has come under fire. The two biggest specters: that the work could support racist notions of biological differences, and that it could make those designer smart babies a reality.
That’s why scientists are now being called upon to consider whether it’s ethical to study the genetics of intelligence. Researchers should think about “limits we should place or steps we can take to be sure we don't repeat historical errors,” such as forced sterilization of the “feeble-minded” in the early 20th century, said Mildred Solomon, president of the Hastings Center, a bioethics...
Related Articles
By Hamed Aleaziz, The New York Times | 08.13.2026
Immigrants at Ellis Island undergoing a medical inspection | Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash
In 1924, Congress sent a message to the world: We are no longer ready to take “your tired, your poor, your huddled...
What We Inherit by Sam Trejo and Daphne O. Martschenko; and Original Sin by Kathryn Paige Harden have a great deal in common, with substantial differences in style and emphasis. Both books attempt, in different ways, to show the reader just where current research into human genomics stands, where that might be going, and why the authors are interested. In short, the influence of genomic research on our societies is already large and seems likely to change them in ways...
By Dan Falk, Nautilus | 08.20.2026
The pseudoscience of eugenics, founded on the mistaken notion that nature envisions some “right” combination of genes, and that selective breeding can improve the human race, is making a comeback. While the heyday of eugenics was a century ago, the...
By Lillian Kollross , Ms. Magazine | 07.25.2026
In 1937, the U.S. began one of the largest sterilization campaigns in modern history in its colony of Puerto Rico. By the 1970s, one-third of all Puerto Rican women of childbearing age had been sterilized, most without being properly informed...
