[The crispr / cas9 techniques applied to human genetic enhancement: a biotechnological, anthropological-philosophical and legal dialogue]. / Las técnicas crispr/cas9 aplicadas al mejoramiento genético humano: un diálogo biotecnológico, antropológico-filosófico y jurídico.

The CRISPR editing method is revolutionary. This technique opens the possibility of countless operations in the genome of living beings. However, the risks are high and, in some cases, unpredictable. Therefore, based on an anthropology that recognizes the human person with an inherent dignity that includes the body, this article intends to propose bases for a regulation capable of facing the challenge of CRISPR, especially, given the possibility of confusing its therapeutic resource with the eugenics, also before the imminent risk of unleashing unforeseen consequences such as mutations, malformations and side effects that could be devastating for human life.

The Degenerating Sex: Female Sterilisation, Medical Authority and Racial Purity in Catholic Brazil.

This article examines female sterilisation practices in early twentieth-century Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It argues that the medical profession, particularly obstetricians and psychiatrists, used debates over the issue to solidify its moral and political standing during two political moments of Brazilian history: when the Brazilian government separated church and state in the 1890s and when Getúlio Vargas's authoritarian regime of the late 1930s renewed alliances with the Catholic church. Shifting notions of gender, race, and heredity further shaped these debates. In the late nineteenth century, a unified medical profession believed that female sterilisation caused psychiatric degeneration in women. By the 1930s, however, the arrival of eugenics caused a divergence amongst physicians. Psychiatrists began supporting eugenic sterilisation to prevent degeneration - both psychiatric and racial. Obstetricians, while arguing that sterilisation no longer caused mental disturbances in women, rejected it as a eugenic practice in regard to race. For obstetricians, the separation of sex from motherhood was more dangerous than any racial 'impurities', both phenotypical and psychiatric. At the same time, a revitalised Brazilian Catholic church rejected eugenics and sterilisation point blank, and its renewed ties with the Vargas regime blocked the medical implementation of any eugenic sterilisation laws. Brazilian women, nonetheless, continued to access the procedure, regardless of the surrounding legal and medical proscriptions.

Sterilization of those with intellectual disability: Evolution from non-consensual interventions to strict safeguards.

Non-consensual sterilization is one of the characteristic historical abuses that took place mainly in the first half of the 20th century. People with intellectual disability (ID) were a prime target as part of the ideology of negative eugenics. In certain jurisdictions, laws were in force for several decades that permitted sterilization without the need for consent or with consent from third parties. The long-term adverse effects on those sterilized against their will have only more recently been recognized. In the latter half of the 20th century, human rights treaties were introduced and developed; they have, in the main, curbed sterilization abuses. Courts have developed more stringent criteria for making decisions on applications for sterilization, and nowadays there are mostly adequate safeguards in place to protect those with ID from non-consensual sterilization. The only exception should be the particular case in which, all medical and social factors having been taken into account, sterilization is overwhelmingly thought to be the right decision for the individual unable to give consent.

Deviancy, Dependency, and Disability: the Forgotten History of Eugenics and Mass Incarceration.

Three widely discussed explanations of the punitive carceral state are racism, harsh drug laws, and prosecutorial overreach. These three narratives, however, only partially explain how our correctional system expanded to its current overcrowded state. Neglected in our discussion of mass incarceration is our largely forgotten history of the long-term, wholesale institutionalization of the disabled. This form of mass detention, motivated by a continuing application of eugenics and persistent class-based discrimination, is an important part of our history of imprisonment, one that has shaped key contours of our current supersized correctional system. Only by fully exploring this forgotten narrative of long-term detention and isolation will policy makers be able to understand, diagnose, and solve the crisis of mass incarceration.

Legalised non-consensual sterilisation - eugenics put into practice before 1945, and the aftermath. Part 1: USA, Japan, Canada and Mexico.

In the late 19th century, eugenics, a pseudo-scientific doctrine based on an erroneous interpretation of the laws of heredity, swept across the industrialised world. Academics and other influential figures who promoted it convinced political stakeholders to enact laws authorising the sterilisation of people seen as 'social misfits'. The earliest sterilisation Act was enforced in Indiana, in 1907; most states in the USA followed suit and so did several countries, with dissimilar political regimes. The end of the Second World War saw the suspension of Nazi legislation in Germany, including that regulating coerced sterilisation. The year 1945 should have been the endpoint of these inhuman practices but, in the early post-war period, the existing sterilisation Acts were suspended solely in Germany and Austria. Only much later did certain countries concerned - not Japan so far - officially acknowledge the human rights violations committed, issue apologies and develop reparation schemes for the victims' benefit.

Disproportionate Sterilization of Latinos Under California's Eugenic Sterilization Program, 1920-1945.

OBJECTIVES: To compare population-based sterilization rates between Latinas/os and non-Latinas/os sterilized under California's eugenics law. METHODS: We used data from 17 362 forms recommending institutionalized patients for sterilization between 1920 and 1945. We abstracted patient gender, age, and institution of residence into a data set. We extracted data on institution populations from US Census microdata from 1920, 1930, and 1940 and interpolated between census years. We used Spanish surnames to identify Latinas/os in the absence of data on race/ethnicity. We used Poisson regression with a random effect for each patient's institution of residence to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRRs) and compare sterilization rates between Latinas/os and non-Latinas/os, stratifying on gender and adjusting for differences in age and year of sterilization. RESULTS: Latino men were more likely to be sterilized than were non-Latino men (IRR = 1.23; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.15, 1.31), and Latina women experienced an even more disproportionate risk of sterilization relative to non-Latinas (IRR = 1.59; 95% CI = 1.48, 1.70). CONCLUSIONS: Eugenic sterilization laws were disproportionately applied to Latina/o patients, particularly Latina women and girls. Understanding historical injustices in public health can inform contemporary public health practice.

Ethical Issues Regarding CRISPR Mediated Genome Editing.

CRISPR-Cas9 has emerged as a simple, precise and most rapid genome editing technology. With a number of promising applications ranging from agriculture and environment to clinical therapeutics, it is greatly transforming the field of molecular biology. However, there are certain ethical, moral and safety concerns related to the attractive applications of this technique. The most contentious issues concerning human germline modifications are the challenges to human safety and morality such as risk of unforeseen, undesirable effects in clinical applications particularly to correct or prevent genetic diseases, matter of informed consent and the risk of exploitation for eugenics. Stringent regulations and guidelines as well as worldwide debate and awareness are required to ensure responsible and wise use of CRISPR mediated genome editing technology. There is a need for an extensive dialogue among scientists, ethicists, industrialists and policy makers on its societal implications. The opinion of different elements of the society including the general public as well as religious scholars is also critical. In countries with existing legislative framework, it might be appropriate to allow CRISPR based research to proceed with proper justification. However, much anticipated future clinical applications must be strictly regulated with newly established regulations.

Care-ful definition of consent.

This proposal is an attempt to intervene in psychology's violent past and troubling present by calling for notions of "care-ful" practice, compelling us to recognize and celebrate the permeable, porous, and flexible boundaries between bodies and selves. With this heuristic of care, this article hopes to trouble the separation between rigor and relational responsibility, to trouble objectivism, to oust the illusion of cool rationality, and to offer an affective understanding of consent that refuses to deny sexuality in bodies oppressed with the label of intellectually disabled.

An Evil Hitherto Unchecked: Eugenics and the 1917 Ontario Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Mentally Defective and Feeble-Minded.

In 1917, the Ontario government appointed the Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Mentally Defective and Feeble-Minded, headed by Justice Frank Hodgins. Its final report made wide-ranging recommendations regarding the segregation of feeble-minded individuals, restrictions on marriage, the improvement of psychiatric facilities, and the reform of the court system, all matters of great concern to the eugenics movement. At the same time, however, it refrained from using explicitly eugenic vocabulary and ignored the question of sterilization. This article explores the role the commission played in the trajectory of eugenics in Ontario (including the province's failure to pass sterilization legislation) and considers why its recommendations were disregarded.

Consideraciones bioéticas y jurídicas sobre la biotecnología con fines eugenésicos / Considerações bioéticas e jurídicas sobre a biotecnologia com finalidades eugenésicas / Bioethical and legal considerations about biotechnology with eugenic goals

Los nuevos avances biotecnológicos vinculados con la reproducción plantean cuestiones bioético-jurídicas de no poca envergadura. En efecto, a medida que las posibilidades reproductivas proliferan, también lo hacen los conflictos éticos relacionados con el favorecimiento de la eugenesia: la selección de embriones, la selección de sexo de la persona que va a nacer, el uso de personas con finalidad terapéutica para terceros. En este artículo se analizarán los aspectos bioéticos en conflicto, sin olvidar la regulación jurídica que existe al respecto de estas prácticas biotecnológicas vinculadas con la reproducción.

New biotechnology achievements linked to reproduction raises bioethical-legal questions of great importance. Indeed, as reproductive possibilities proliferate, ethical conflicts proliferate as well favoring eugenics: embryo selection, sex selection of the person to be born, use of persons with therapeutic end for others. In this article, bioethical issues in conflict will be analyzed, not forgetting existing legal regulation of these biotechnological practices linked to reproduction.

Os novos avanços biotecnológicos vinculados com a reprodução propõem questões bioético-jurídicas de não pouca envergadura. Com efeito, a medida que as possibilidades reprodutivas proliferam, também o fazem os conflitos éticos relacionados com o favorecimento da eugenesia: a seleção de embriões, a seleção de sexo da pessoa que vai nascer, o uso de pessoas com finalidade terapêutica para terceiros. Neste artigo se analisarão os aspectos bioéticos em conflito, sem esquecer a regulamentação jurídica que existe a respeito destas práticas biotecnológicas vinculadas com a reprodução.

Eugenics and Involuntary Sterilization: 1907-2015.

In England during the late nineteenth century, intellectuals, especially Francis Galton, called for a variety of eugenic policies aimed at ensuring the health of the human species. In the United States, members of the Progressive movement embraced eugenic ideas, especially immigration restriction and sterilization. Indiana enacted the first eugenic sterilization law in 1907, and the US Supreme Court upheld such laws in 1927. State programs targeted institutionalized, mentally disabled women. Beginning in the late 1930s, proponents rationalized involuntary sterilization as protecting vulnerable women from unwanted pregnancy. By World War II, programs in the United States had sterilized approximately 60,000 persons. After the horrific revelations concerning Nazi eugenics (German Hereditary Health Courts approved at least 400,000 sterilization operations in less than a decade), eugenic sterilization programs in the United States declined rapidly. Simplistic eugenic thinking has faded, but coerced sterilization remains widespread, especially in China and India. In many parts of the world, involuntary sterilization is still intermittently used against minority groups.

[RESEARCHES ON EMBRYO: THE RISKS OF EUGENIC DRIFTS AND LIVING MATTER UNDER PATENT]. / RECHERCHES SUR L'EMBRYON, RISQUES DE DÉRIVES EUGÉNIQUES ET BREVETABILITÉ DU VIVANT.

As a result of scientific progress, embryo, once classified as part of the maternal body, gained recognition in particular with medically assisted reproduction. It became a genuine topic of study, from being analyzed in its development to its characteristics of being a reserchers's object of desire due to its multiple possibilities of reserch and study. Despite belonging to the human species, and even though they are not completely classified as objects, supernumerary embryos, out of parental projects, were gradually reified in order to become the object of all genetic engineering fantasies, especially the quest of the perfect child, free of diseases and anomalies. Notwithstanding all the precautions taken by the legislator and the European institutions, future drifts concerning the enlargement of prenatal diagnostics and of living matter under patent possibilities are to be feared.

Diagnóstico genético prenatal y aborto. Dos cuestiones de eugenesia y discriminación / No disponible

Los avances en genética seguidos de las nuevas tecnologías en la detección temprana de afecciones genéticas conllevan dilemas bioéticos sobre el uso adecuado de estas técnicas, la información que se le da a la mujer embarazada y la decisión que ella tomará al recibirla. Detectar a tiempo anomalías genéticas permite, en algunas ocasiones, el inicio de un tratamiento adecuado que permita que el niño por nacer no desarrolle una enfermedad discapacitante, como el caso de la fenilcetonuria, o una intervención quirúrgica para un feto con espina bífida, pero en caso que no se tenga ningún tratamiento disponible el aborto sigue siendo la última alternativa. Aunque para muchos cualquier tipo de aborto es eugenésico, esto es busca eliminar individuos no deseados, el objetivo de este artículo es revisar los diferentes tipos de aborto y diferenciar entre el aborto propiamente eugenésico del aborto terapéutico, del aborto con fines sociales o demográficos y del realizado por selección de sexo, para al final proponer que en ciertos casos el aborto eugenésico podría considerarse como bioéticamente aceptable (AU)

Advances in genetics followed by the new technologies in the early detection of genetic disorders involving bioethical dilemmas about the proper use of these techniques, the information given to pregnant women and the decision that she will take to receive it. Early detection of genetic abnormalities allow, in some cases, the initiation of appropriate treatment to allow the unborn child does not develop a disabling disease, as the case of phenylketonuria, or surgery for a fetus with spina bifida, but If you do not have any treatment available abortion remains the last alternative. Although for many, any type of abortion is eugenics, that is seeking to eliminate unwanted individuals, the aim of this paper is to review the different types of abortion and the difference between eugenic abortion, therapeutic abortion, abortion for social or demographic ends and Sex‐selection made for the for the final proposal that in some cases eugenic abortion could be considered acceptable for bioethics (AU)

De plantas y hombre: cómo los genetistas se vincularon a la eugenesia en Brasil (un estudio de caso 1929-1933) / Of plants and men: how geneticists were linked to eugenics in Brazil (1929-1933)

En el presente artículo pretendemos reflexionar sobre la trayectoria de Octávio Domingues (1897-1972) y Salvador Toledo Piza Jr. (1898-1988), dos genetistas de una escuela agrícola del Estado de São Paulo que se vincularon al principal propagador de la eugenesia en Brasil, Renato Kehl (1889-1974). Ese acercamiento se concretó en su asociación alrededor de la publicación del Boletim de Eugenia, importante vehículo de divulgación del movimiento eugenésico entre los años 1929 y 1933. A partir del análisis de esa publicación periódica, ha sido posible detectar que, aunque los dos partían de la teoría mendeliana de la herencia, Toledo Piza Jr. consideraba el mestizaje de la población brasileña como algo que iba en contra de la naturaleza, mientras que Octávio Domingues la juzgaba saludable (AU)

The aim of this article is to analyse the trajectory of Octávio Domingues (1897-1972) and Salvador de Toledo Piza Jr. (1898-1988), two geneticists in the Agricultural School of São Paulo State, who engaged with the main propagandist for the eugenics in Brazil, Renato Kehl (1889-1974). This approach is embodied in its association surrounding the publication of the Boletim de Eugenia, an important vehicle for the dissemination of the eugenics movement between the years 1929 and 1933. From the analysis of this journal, it was possible to detect that even sharing both Mendelian theory of heredity, Toledo Piza Jr. considered miscegenation of the Brazilian population as something against nature, while Octávio Domingues judged it healthy (AU)

El huevo de la serpiente al sur del mundo: desarrollo y supervivencia de la ciencia nazi en Chile (1908-1951) / The serpent's egg at the south of the world: development and survival of nazi science in Chile (1908-1951)

El trabajo aborda, principalmente a partir de la figura del Dr. Max Westenhoffer y de un trabajo de los Drs. Barrientos y Schirmer de 1937, las conexiones que presenta el desarrollo de la medicina y la antropología en Chile con el pensamiento determinista biológico y racista en Europa. Médicos y antropólogos chilenos como Otto Aichel, Aureliano Oyarzún, Edgardo Schirmer y Juvenal Barrientos dan cuenta de la relación directa de una parte del programa científico chileno de la primera mitad del siglo XX con el programa hereditarista y racista, que alcanzó su punto cúlmine con la eugenesia y la antropología nazi (AU)

The paper presents, mainly through the figure of Dr. Max Westenhoffer and in a work of Drs. Barrientos and Schirmer (1937), the connections between the development of medicine and anthropology in Chile with the development of the biological determinist thought and racism in Europe. Chilean Physicians and anthropologists as Otto Aichel, Aureliano Oyarzún, Edgardo Schirmer and Juvenal Barrientos indicate the direct relationship of the Chilean scientific program of the early twentieth century with the hereditarian and racist program, which reached its climax with the Nazi eugenics (AU)

Iglesia católica y eugenesia latina: un constructo teórico para el control social (Argentina, 1924-1958) / Catholic church and latin eugenics: a theoretical construct for the social control (Argentina, 1924-1958)

Se abordan aquí interacciones entabladas entre ciencia y religión a través de la formulación de un saber particularmente influyente en el campo del poder, como fue el conformado en torno a una corriente de pensamiento eugénico. Nos referimos a la variante gestada desde la biotipología italiana para atender al control social impulsado por el fascismo y también por países como la Argentina donde llegó a sobrevivir en el tiempo más allá de la segunda posguerra. Esa versión eugénica, caracterizada por un encendido rechazo a cualquier acción pública o privada orientada a la esterilización humana - atento al mandato católico de no intervención sobre los cuerpos, gestión privativa de Dios - propició medidas también tendentes a acelerar una selección artificial vulnerando todo principio de igualdad humana. Tomando la postura oficial de la Iglesia católica ante la eugenesia, entre 1924 y 1958, su relación con la biotipología y la difusión en Argentina de la llamada eugenesia latina, en tanto expresión resultante de esa articulación entre ciencia y religión, se busca dar cuenta de la coexistencia en ese constructo de la identificación, clasificación, jerarquización y exclusión de individuos que caracteriza a todo planteo eugenésico, instrumentados merced a dispositivos coercitivos de índole ambiental (AU)

This paper discusses interactions between science and religion thorough the formulation of the Italian Biotipology, as knowledge very influential in the field of power. That ideology was created around a variant of the eugenic thinking for to give answers to the social control promoted by the fascism; and it was well accepted in different countries, as Argentina, for example. Here, it survived over several years beyond the World War II. The Biotipology was characterized by a strong repulse to any public or private action oriented to human sterilization. Indeed, we must remember that Catholic rules imposed the "no-intervention on the bodies", belonging only to God. On these corpus of ideas, the new Italian science prompted arrangements that attempt to accelerate the artificial selection breaking the human equality principle. Between 1924 and 1958, the Biotipology was the official Catholic doctrine about Eugenics and it was widespread in Argentina from the called Latin Eugenics. In this manner, the identification, classification, hierarchical structure and exclusion of some humans, were instrumented in this country by means of coercive and environmental devices (AU)

Una dialógica desestabilizadora del orden social y sexual: el médico argentino Juan Lazarte en la Revista Anarquista Estudios (1932-1936) / A destabolizing dialogics of social and sexual order: the argentinian physician Juan Lazarte in the anarchist magazine estudios (1932-1936)

En este trabajo analizamos los artículos del médico argentino Juan Lazarte publicados en la revista Estudios en los años 30 del siglo XX. Este hecho se produjo en el marco de una política editorial que pretendía superar la exclusión a que eran sometidos los discursos de oposición al orden social establecido. La práctica discursiva analizada se desarrolló sobre una dialógica en torno a las propuestas neomaltusianas y eugenésicas y a las causas históricas de unas relaciones sociales generizadas que estructuraban una doble moral sexual. Lazarte usó diversas formas de intertextualidad y señaló la compatibilidad de planteamientos que se mostraban opuestos en apariencia, sin obviar las diferencias, evitando los debates en términos dicotómicos. Esta praxis hizo posible un uso táctico de la retórica eugenésica en la propuesta neomaltusiana con la que se pretendía que la especie humana alcanzase un estado de buen vivir. Al no concebir la historia desde una ideología del progreso, y empeñarse en considerar los distintos aspectos de los problemas (biológicos, económicos y culturales), el discurso de Lazarte en Estudios contribuía a conformar un mundo que desafiaba los supuestos de un biopoder determinista, constituyéndose en un poder desestabilizador del orden sexual y social (AU)

In this paper we analyze the articles published by Argentinean physician Juan Larzarte in the magazine Estudios in the 1930s. This took place within a publishing policy aimed at overcoming the exclusion of discourses opposing the established social order. The discourse practices we explore were dialogic while focusing on neo-Malthusian and eugenic propositions and the historical causes of a gendered social relations structuring a double sexual morals. Lazarte used several forms of intertextuality and suggested the compatibility of seemingly opposed approaches without getting round the differences and avoiding debates in dichotomic terms. These practices allowed the strategic use of eugenic rhetoric within the neo-Malthusian proposition aimed at the human species to reach a state of good living. As he did not consider history from an ideology of progress, and insisted on taking into account the different facets of any issue (biological, economic and cultural), Lazarte’s discourse in Estudios contributed to configure a world defying the assumptions of a deterministic biopower, thus becoming a destabilizing power regarding the sexual and social order (AU)

Reprogenética: avance técnico y avatares subjetivos / Reprogenetics: technical progress and subjective avatars

La especie humana es por esencia una extraordinaria torsión, única y singular. Allí radica algo de la peculiaridad de la condición humana. El desarrollo de las tecnologías reproductivas han cambiado el mundo tal como lo conocíamos. ¿Podemos hablar –siguiendo a Kuhn– de un cambio de paradigma? Eso habrá que verlo. Por el momento presentamos diferentes escenarios que ponen en interlocución el avance científico, el campo normativo y la dimensión subjetiva. Entre necesidad y azar el campo de la reprogenética nos confronta con interrogantes que atraviesan el devenir de la condición humana, mina las bases y hace estallar el modelo de familia tradicional dando lugar al amplio abanico de las nuevas conformaciones familiares. Siguiendo los desarrollos propuestos por Foucault en Historia de la sexualidad I, La voluntad de Saber se da entrada a un discurso que permite reflexionar en torno a la incidencia del poder en las prácticas cotidianas. Poner al deseo en discurso, implica analizar cuáles son los “mecanismos de poder para cuyo funcionamiento el discurso sobre el sexo ha llegado a ser esencial.” “Sexualidad” y “familia” serán entonces nuestros disparadores para pensar la articulación de la biopolítica en el discurrir de las narrativas sobre el cuerpo. Por último, un escenario cinematográfico será la ocasión ideal para desentrañar los aspectos oscuros y controvertidos del planteo eugenésico en las antípodas de la reprogenética...

The human being is an extraordinary torsion, essentially unique and singular. We might find there something of its particular value. The development of assisted reproductive technologies has changed the world as we knew it. Following Thomas Kuhn ideas, can we argue that we are under a "paradigm shift" in terms of this revolution? We´ll see… For instance we will present some specific scenarios in which the scientific breakthrough, the regulatory and legislative field, and the subjective dimension are interconnected. In-between chance and necessity, the concerns of reprogenetics faced us with huge question which cross the evolution of human condition, erode the foundations and crush into the traditional model of the "contemporary" family leading to a wide range of new family conformation. Following some ideas of Michel Foucault proposed in The History of Sexuality I, The Will to Knowledge we will analyze how power affects daily practices. To put the desire into discourse suppose to analyze which are the mechanism of power in which the discourse on sex has become essential. "Sexuality" and "Family" will be our triggers to reflect on the impact of biopolitics in the narrative discourse over the body. Finally we have chosen a film to explore the dark and controversial aspects of the eugenics strategy opposed to reprogenetics approach

"A visitation of providence:" Public health and eugenic reform in the wake of the Halifax disaster.

The Halifax Explosion provided the opportunity for an "experiment in public health" that was meant not only to restore but also to improve the city and its population in the process. The restructuring that occurred during the restoration was influenced by pre-existing ideals and prejudices which were reflected in the goals of the newly formed committees in charge of the reconstruction. The primary emphasis on improvement as well as control was the result of existing regional concerns regarding the emigration of the province's most "desirable" stock, in the form of healthy, educated young men and women, to central Canada and the eastern United States. Public health reforms reflected the eugenic goal of improving the overall quality of the population through education, surveillance, and inspection, resorting finally to institutionalizing people who public health officials determined were genuinely deficient.