Label:
Faulty research practices of the eugenists in a pedigree, James Watson
Description:
Interviewee: James Watson
DNAi Location:
Chronicle>Threat of the Unfit>the fit and unfit
Pedigree of mental illness
James Watson examines a family pedigree in which many suffer from mental disorders.
Pedigrees of the fit and unfit
The pedigree, a chart tracing the inheritance of one or more traits through a family, was a primary tool of eugenics research and education. After "scoring" each family member for the presence or absence of a given trait, the researcher attempted to discern a pattern consistent with one of three basic modes of Mendelian inheritance – dominant, recessive, or sex-limited (X-linked). Some eugenical information was submitted voluntarily on questionnaires; some was collated from records of mental hospitals, prisons, and poorhouses.
Some families were proud to make known their pedigrees of intellectual/artistic achievement, while others sought advice on the eugenical fitness of proposed marriages. The Fitter Families Contests held at state fairs throughout the United States during the 1920s showed that American eugenicists were literal in their aim to apply principles of agricultural breeding to human beings. An extensive pedigree was constructed for each competing family – including full physical exams and IQ tests for each member – and winning families were awarded trophies and medals.
While positive eugenics highlighted the achievements of "fit" families, negative eugenics focused on "unfit" families who were burdened with degenerate traits such as feeblemindedness, alcoholism, pauperism, and criminality. Pedigrees of poor, rural families – with fictitious names like the Jukes, the Kallikaks, the Nams, and the Ishmaelites – appeared to show genetic deterioration over time (cacogenics). American eugenicists dismissed any environmental contribution to their plight – such as poor housing, nutrition, or schools – and placed the blame directly on bad genes.
James Watson discusses how eugenicists constructed and used pedigrees to highlight the supposed differences between "fit" and "unfit" families.
Biological elements:
genes
Concepts precesses:
inheritence, eugenics, dominant, recessive, sex -inked
Tools & methods :
pedigree, IQ test