Genism, Racism, and the Prospect of Genetic Genocide
By George J. Annas
| 09. 03. 2001
Prepared for presentation at UNESCO 21st Century Talks: The New Aspects of Racism in the Age of Globalization and the Gene Revolution at the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Durban, South Africa
I greatly appreciate the opportunity to speak to you on the topic of "Genism, Racism, and the Prospect of Genetic Genocide" in conjunction with the World Conference against Racism. I think there is little doubt that the 21st century will be the century of human genetics. New genetic technologies have the potential not only to change what we can do to ourselves and each other, but more importantly, to change the very way we see ourselves and each other.
Our superficial perceptions of each other have often fostered racism in the past. Simply defined, racism is "the theory that distinctive human characteristics and abilities are determined by race." The hunt for genes, especially in groups identified by racial classifications, could lead to "genism" (a term not yet officially recognized, but one I would define as the theory that distinctive human characteristics and abililites are determined by genes) based on DNA sequence characteristics with resulting discrimination as pernicious as racism.
A second consequence of the new genetics will be a temptation to use our new powers to transform ourselves by attempting...
Related Articles
By Arthur Lazarus, MedPage Today | 01.23.2026
A growing body of contemporary research and reporting exposes how old ideas can find new life when repurposed within modern systems of medicine, technology, and public policy. Over the last decade, several trends have converged:
- The rise of polygenic scoring...
By Evelina Johansson Wilén, Jacobin | 01.18.2026
In her book The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson describes pregnancy as an experience marked by a peculiar duality. On the one hand, it is deeply transformative, bodily alien, sometimes almost incomprehensible to the person undergoing it. On the other hand...
By Daphne O. Martschenko and Julia E. H. Brown, Hastings Bioethics Forum | 01.14.2026
There is growing concern that falling fertility rates will lead to economic and demographic catastrophe. The social and political movement known as pronatalism looks to combat depopulation by encouraging people to have as many children as possible. But not just...
By Michael Rossi, The Los Angeles Review of Books | 01.11.2026
This is the 10th installment in the Legacies of Eugenics series, which features essays by leading thinkers devoted to exploring the history of eugenics and the ways it shapes our present. The series is organized by Osagie K. Obasogie in...
