Ensuring Equitable Use of New Genetic Technologies: Lessons from Eugenics

ELSI Friday Forum • January 14, 2022

New genetic technologies have incrementally but steadily altered the landscape of human reproduction. These technologies include polygenic risk scores coupled with embryo selection, fetal testing using DNA sequencing or non-invasive prenatal testing, and reproductive carrier screening. However, the broad use of and access to these new technologies is subject to little evaluation, control or oversight in terms of whether they are serving society’s interests or inflicting social harm. The potential for exacerbating existing inequities or creating new ones is particularly concerning. In this session, panelists will bring perspectives from history, social science and philosophy to start a discussion on lessons learned from empirical and conceptual analysis of eugenics, and how we can employ them in an era of rapid growth of new genetic technologies.

Panelist: Emily Klancher Merchant, PhD (University of California, Davis)
Panelist: Lisa Dive, PhD (University of Sydne
Moderator: Osagie Obasogie, JD, PhD (University of California, Berkeley)

Please see the attached transcript and resources files in the upper right hand corner of this page for more information on this topic, as well as the ELSIhub Collection "Social Norms in Selective Reproduction: Implications for the Wide Offer of Genetic Screening Technologies"