Living with the Eugenic Past: Michele Goodwin

Hello, I’m Dr Kat Arney. This podcast is part of a miniseries of interviews with speakers from the 2022 annual conference of the Adelphi Genetics Forum - a learned society that aims to promote research and discussion concerning the scientific understanding of human heredity. Formerly known as the Galton Institute, and before that, the Eugenics Education Society, the society has changed its name to the Adelphi Genetics Forum to firmly reject and distance itself from the discredited and damaging ideas of its namesake, Francis Galton – widely viewed as the founder of eugenics. 

This year’s conference, titled ‘Living with the Eugenic Past’, brought together expert speakers to grapple with the problem of how best to live with the eugenic past. What are the demands of justice when it comes to the victims of eugenics? How should universities and other institutions involved in eugenics deal responsibly with that involvement? And can present-day biology education and research be improved to help safeguard the future from the mistakes of the past?

The last lecture of the day was given by Michele Goodwin - Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Director of the Centre for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy at the University of California Irvine, and also a senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School. Her talk focused on how the long shadow of eugenics and white supremacy persists into the present day and remain embedded in contemporary political frameworks, and why this pernicious ideology is taking so long to die. So, how does she start thinking about such a complex and challenging topic?

Thanks to Michele Goodwin.

You can find out more about the Adelphi Genetics Forum, including their grants, awards and publications, at adelphigenetics.org You can check out the rest of this series on the Genetics Unzipped podcast feed – just search for Genetics Unzipped on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. This series was produced by the team at First Create The Media – that’s Kat Arney, Sally Le Page and Emma Werner, with help from Ed Prosser and Frankie Pike. Our music is Drops of H2O by J. Lang, licensed under Creative Commons. Thanks for listening, and goodbye.