The relationship between science and the eugenics movement, James Watson

Interviewee: James Watson. ames Watson discusses the failure of eugenics to identify genetic differences between people they considered "fit" and "unfit." Here he talks about eugenicists were bound to try to apply their new knowledge of genetics to humans, but the movement lingered on even after it was clear their science was hollow. (DNAi Location: Chronicle > Threat of the Unfit > Epilogue > The warning of eugenics)

Well I think it's a sort of warning, I think, some things probably are bound to happen and when Mendel's laws were rediscovered people were going to see whether they could explain the differences between the fit and unfit, and after about twenty years it was clear they couldn't. But the movement went on and, like many movements when its time has passed they still go on and now we're embarrassed by it, but you know, it's not to the point where you don't want to talk about it, in fact you do want to talk about it because I think it was a case where science or lack of science was confused for science.

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