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Hertog Fellow, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy

Fellow for the Project on Biotechnology and American Democracy at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and senior editor of The New Atlantis.

Dr. James Dewey Watson, having received the 1962 Nobel Laureate for his part in discovering the structure of the DNA molecule, discusses the popular question of nature and nurture. This topic questions whether genetics or the environment affect humanity’s traits such as personality, intelligence, and values. The question of nature and nurture is a popular one today. It is commonly questioned whether genes or the environment determine aspects of one’s life, such as personality, intelligence, values, etc. A wide variety of opinions come into play. Having received the 1962 Nobel Laureate for his part in discovering the structure of the DNA molecule, Dr. James Dewey Watson is the perfect source of insight for this topic. This discovery launched a revolution in science, which has in turn launched many discussions. Again, the question of nature and nurture is one of the many being talked about. Watson offers his personal opinions on this topic in a lighthearted spirit. He discusses concepts that are important to consider, such as the concept of developing personal values. He also offers great insight into the connection between this discussion today and the possibilities in the future. The question of nature and nurture is one that is very relevant today. Looking at DNA itself helps us get closer to an answer on this topic. The future possibilities of research on this topic are endless.

Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto

Prof. Dr. Roelcke, Chair and Director of the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University of Giessen in Germany, is an expert in medicine and the Holocaust, particularly as it relates to psychiatry. He describes the rationale and behavior of influential academic physicians during the Third Reich as well as the response of academic medicine to the revelations of Nazi medical crimes. German academic physicians promoted eugenics, or racial hygiene as it was known in Germany, for decades before Hitler came to power. They promoted contributions to the Volkskörper by the “fit” and segregating or eliminating those who appeared to endanger the health of the race, understood as a collective organism. Hitler adopted these eugenic ideas with murderous results. Myths have been developed to protect academic medicine from a careful examination of the role of physicians in designing and implementing the Holocaust. For example, one myth is that the medical atrocities were committed by a few fervent Nazi doctors as a result of irrational ideologies imposed from above by Nazi politicians on apolitical physicians. While this myth may be comforting, all parts of it are untrue. Dr. William Seidelman also addresses the responsibilities of academic medicine. Prof. Dr. Roelcke’s essay on this topic can be found in Medicine after the Holocaust: From the Master Race to the Human Genome and Beyond, and his personal story about his advocacy for study medicine and the Holocaust and about his Nazi physician father can be found in Human Subjects Research after the Holocaust. Watch here: 🎧 Audio Only:

Dr. Rubenfeld’s opening remarks from the Michael DeBakey Medical Ethics Lecture Series in 2007. Most people, including medical professionals, know very little about the central role of the German medical profession in the design and implementation of the Holocaust. They know even less about the legal, moral, and philanthropic precedents and support provided by American eugenicists to German eugenics. This lecture gives an overview of both subjects and provides an introduction to the subsequent lectures. Eugenics is defined as the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics and to decrease the occurrence of undesirable heritable characteristics. German physicians, the best in the world at the time, initially chose to prevent transmission of undesirable genetic traits by sterilization and prohibiting marriages of non–Aryans to Aryans. They then developed gas chambers to eliminate these German, not specifically Jewish, “lives not worth living” by involuntary “euthanasia” or mercy killing. These gas chambers were later enlarged and multiplied for the Final Solution to the Jewish problem. American eugenicists provided: The first involuntary sterilization laws in the world as a model for German sterilization laws Philanthropic support for the research foundation that help train Dr. Josef Mengele Model immigration laws for preventing undesirable Jewish, Italian and Chinese immigrants A book by Madison Grant about Nordic supremacy that Hitler called his “Bible” 🎧 Audio Only:

2000 Nobel Laureate (Physiology or Medicine) Fred Kavli Professor, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Director of the Kavli Institute for Brain Sciences at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The Emmanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics, Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Associate Professor, History of Medicine, Yale University

Co-Medical Director, The Roger Clemens Institute for Sports Medicine & Human Performance, Memorial Hermann, Houston, Texas

Senior Vice President at Memorial Hermann | TIRR Hospital, Chairperson of the National Council on Disability

Edward R. Utley Professor and Chair, Department of Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights, Boston University School of Public Health