Biohazard: Novartis Foundation spreads toxic genetic pollution
Foundation invites racist eugenicist Arthur Jensen to speak in London
Door: People Against Eugenics, december 1999, Press release, 'Biohazard: Novartis Foundation spreads toxic genetic pollution'
Press release
People Against Eugenics (1) has today condemned the Novartis
Foundation (2) for inviting the notorious eugenicist, Arthur Jensen,
to speak at a 'scientific' meeting on intelligence. Jensen is best
known for his insistence that black people are genetically inferior in
intelligence to white people. He is a member of the American
Eugenics Society and has been funded by the racist Pioneer Fund
(3). Earlier this year a protest by People Against Eugenics (PAE)
prevented Jensen speaking at the annual meeting of the British
Eugenics Society.
PAE has written today to Gregory Bock, the director of the Novartis
Foundation, calling on him to apologise for the invitation to Jensen.
It is unacceptable that a well-respected scientific organisation such
as the Novartis Foundation promote Jensen's racist pseudo-science.
PAE calls upon other scientists to dissociate themselves from the
Foundation if it does not repudiate Jensen.
PAE has also written to David Blunkett, the Secretary of State for
Education, and to David Sainsbury, the Minster for Science, asking
them to publicly condemn the invitation to Arthur Jensen. At a time
when all organisations are supposed to be implementing the
recommendations of the Lawrence Report, it cannot be acceptable
for racists to be given prestigious scientific platforms.
David King of People Against Eugenics said: 'It is vital that we resist the creeping return of eugenics. On the eve of a new millennium we are facing two threats: the increasing acceptance of old fashioned
eugenics, like Jensen's, and the proliferation of genetic technology,
unrestrained by either law or ethics. It is time to take a stand.'
For more information contact David King at the number above.
Notes for editors
1. Eugenics is the programme of improving the human race by controlling which genes are transmitted to the next generation. In the past this was done by forced sterilisation, often of people with learning difficulties. In Germany in the 1930s and 40s, eugenics led to the murder of thousands of disabled people and, ultimately, to the Holocaust.
People Against Eugenics is a group of concerned citizens disturbed by the resurgence of eugenic thinking. Its protest at the Eugenics Society earlier this year was supported by the Disabled Action Network, the Genetic Engineering Network, the Jewish Socialist Group, and the National Assembly Against Racism.
2. The Novartis Foundation is a charitable organisation linked to the Swiss GM food and drugs company, Novartis, formed from the merger of Ciba Geigy and Sandoz.
3. The Pioneer Fund is closely linked to the American Eugenics Society and has supported racist and other far-right causes in the USA, such as
segregation in the Southern USA.
4. The Novartis Foundation was held at the Institute of Psychiatry,
based at the Maudsley Hospital in south London, which itself has had
extensive eugenic connections from its inception. These include
British Eugenics Society members, Dr. C.P. Blacker (the Society's
secretary for 20 years), Dr Elliott Slater, who trained with the Nazi
psychiatrist and architect of the German eugenics programme, Dr
Ernst Rudin, and Professor Hans Eysenck. Other Eugenics Society
members who have worked at the Institute include Prof. Sir Denis
Hill, Dr J.M. Kellett, Dr Edward Mapother (a director of the Institute), Dr John Scott Price, Dr William Linford Rees, Dr William Scott, Dr Valerie Cowie, Dr Aubrey Lewis, Dr Hilda (Lady) Lewis and Dr
Michael Smith. The Institute was at the centre of controversy in 1996 over a proposal by Dr Robert Plomin to spend #1.8 million pounds of Medical Research Council m fin and Professor Michael Rutter, all spoke at the Eugenics Society's symposium on intelligence in 1996 (although they are not members of the Society). Dr McGuffin also spoke at last week's symposium.
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