Episode 6: The Eugenesis of Genetic Counseling

Eugenics is at the core of the emergence of the genetic counseling profession. In this episode, Alexandra Minna Stern, PhD, the Humanities Dean at UCLA, a historian, and researcher, discusses how this entanglement casts a long shadow over the profession and offers important historical context for some of the present day challenges facing the fields of genetics and genomics.

KEY TOPICS

• Introduction to the Professor Alexandra Minna Stern and background on the genetic counseling profession and the eugenics movement [0:00 - 04:05]

• Reading of excerpt from Telling Genes the Story of Genetic Counseling in America [04:05-11:01]

• Why did you choose to tell this history of genetic counseling? And how did you reconstruct it? [11:02-12:55]

• Can you describe what you call the eugenesis of the genetic counseling profession, and how you think it influences the practice of medicine and genetics today? [13:56 - 19:50]

• How prevalent were eugenics views among the genetics profession as a whole? How did eugenics affect research priorities or funding? [19:51 - 25.03]

• How would you describe overall the relationship of the genetic counseling profession to race historically and in current day practice, given that the genetic counseling profession today is overwhelmingly white? [25:03- 29:39]

• Can you talk a little bit about the work you do in the lab around forced sterilizations? And also your research into this topic? [29:39- 35:21]

• What types of people were targeted with forced sterilization? Where were they performed? [35:22 - 43:08]

• Historically, how have you seen genetic counselors or geneticists contribute to this reductionist thinking about people living with genetic difference? And on the flip side, how have some medical professionals worked to expand the profession's approach to genetic difference in disability? [43:08-54:12]

• Wrap up [54:15-56:40]