Medical Center Hour – The Continuing Relevance of America’s Eugenic Legacy – Paul A. Lombardo, PhD, JD

Wednesday, 29 March 2017
12:30-1:30 pm
Pinn Hall Conference Center Auditorium
University of Virginia School of Medicine

The Joan Echtenkamp Klein Memorial Lecture in the History of the Health Sciences

THE CONTINUING RELEVANCE
OF AMERICA’S EUGENIC LEGACY

 PaulLombardo

Paul A. Lombardo PhD JD
Regents Professor & Bobby Lee Cook Professor of Law
Center for Law, Health, and Society, College of Law, Georgia State University, Atlanta GA

The history of eugenics is often characterized as a cautionary tale of life in the bad old days, when pseudoscientific assumptions about genetic determinism provided a respectable veneer that enabled barely submerged racism, xenophobia, and blatant discrimination against persons with disabilities to take root in American law. Some argue that, today, our science is sound, our attitudes enlightened; we need not be hobbled by fear of long-expired bad eugenic habits.

In this Medical Center Hour, Paul Lombardo, who has written extensively on eugenics and the law in America, challenges such assumptions, asserting that the same tendencies that led to a century of eugenic law and policy continue to inform our public debate over democratic values and the proper role of science as a tool for solving social problems.

Co-presented with the History of the Health Sciences Lecture Series, Historical Collections,
Claude Moore Health Sciences Library

 

The Lane Road entrance to the Pinn Hall Conference Center is unlocked 12:00-12:30 pm

Event Categories: Medical Center Hour, Upcoming Events

 

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