Science of Heredity and Evolution Developments Applied to Human Beings Essay

Science of Heredity and Evolution Developments Applied to Human Beings Essay

The purpose of this exercise is to help you to make up your own mind about a range of issues that will only become more and more urgent in the years ahead. As biology gets a more intricate and sophisticated understanding and control of the processes of heredity, all the questions raised in a crude form by eugenicists in the early twentieth century will return in an updated version. How will you respond? This paper should give you the historical background necessary for an informed and educated opinion.

The question you will answer is:

How were the major developments in the sciences of heredity and evolution applied to human beings in the twentieth century? What can this tell us about the relationship between science and society?