The following press releases concern a pro-eugenics conference taking place yesterday and today at the Royal Society in London. Among the conference topics:

* Why we are morally obliged to genetically enhance our children - Julian Savulescu

* Gay science: choosing our children's sexual orientation - Timothy Murphy

* Preventing the existence of people with disabilities - Jeff McMahon

* Eugenics some lessons from the past -- David Galton

The pressure group People Against Eugenics has commented: "Even if the talks are not actually illegal, the Royal Society should never allow it premises to be used to promote eugenics and hatred of disabled people."

The Royal Society urgently needs to clarify how this event came to be held at the Society, and the role if any of Officers or Fellows of the Royal Society in arranging for the Society to host it.

The UK has been far from free of the influence of eugenic thought, as anyone can see by checking out the membership of the British Eugenics Society and seeing just some of the formal badge wearers among the many scientists and others influenced by this fashion.
http://www.africa2000.com/ENDX/endx.htm

For more on the Royal Society and its troubled history:
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=113

1.Disabled people and allies condemn pro-eugenics conference
2.DISABILITY discrimination concern forces legal inquiry over eugenics conference
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1. Disabled people and allies condemn pro-eugenics conference
MEDIA RELEASE
PHOTO OPPORTUNITY
PLACE Royal Society, Carlton House Terrace, London SW1
DATE/ TIME 9 am Sept 30th
Embargo: 8:30 AM Sept 30th 2004

People Against Eugenics (1) will be protesting today at a pro-eugenics conference at the Royal Society in London (2). Campaigners will be arguing that the Royal Society should not allow a platform to argue for the elimination of disabled people and for cloning and designer babies.

The conference is a blatant attempt to advance a eugenic agenda, and has no semblance of balance. No disabled people have been asked to speak. The main conference organiser, the pioneer of IVF, Robert Edwards, represents the link between old-fashioned eugenics and the new free-market version.

Edwards has been a former President and a leading member of the British Eugenics Society since the 1960s (3). He believes it is a 'sin' to have disabled children (see quote 1 below). Another conference organiser, Edgar Dahl, supports sex selection and reproductive cloning.

In addition to these, John Harris and David Galton have supported eugenics as a positive good (quote 2). Harris and Jeff McMahan believe that people should be allowed to kill disabled babies, since they are supposedly less than fully human (quotes 3 and 4). Gregory Stock is a well-known advocate of 'improving' children via genetic engineering and Julian Savulescu will be arguing the 'moral' case for doing so at the conference.

Other speakers argue an absolute 'right' of parental choice to design and select our children, no matter what the social consequences. John Robertson has argued that this 'right' means that cloning and sex selection should be allowed (4) and Savulescu believes that parents should be allowed to abort children with teeth defects (5). Timothy Murphy says that, if it becomes possible, parents should be allowed to prevent the birth of gay children, since even a massive reduction in the number of gay people would not be sufficient harm to restrict 'reproductive liberty' (6).

People Against Eugenics (PAE) rejects the claim that eugenics ended after the Holocaust. Many of these speakers clearly share the early 20th century eugenics movement's aim of preventing disabled people being born, but they have different, more up-to-date means. In fact, many early 20th century eugenicists, including the eugenics movement's founder, Francis Galton, also opposed coercive legislation, favouring persuasion and what we would today call market forces. The advocacy of 'reproductive liberty' is a key part of advancing the agenda of free-market eugenics. PAE supports women's right to choose abortion, but does not believe this includes some 'right' to design our children.

Disabled campaigner, Rachel Hurst, said: "Disabled people are human beings too - a 'healthy' nation is one in which difference is included and celebrated - not a nation designed by the powerful."

PAE campaigner Holly Williams said: "The timing of this conference is a blast from the past in a society celebrating the achievements of the Paralympics and the new disability equality act. There needs to be a bigger public debate about what sort of a society we want to live in. PAE is in favour of an inclusive and supportive society where disabled people have equal rights, and adequate financial support. Social justice will help us be a healthy and happy population. Eugenics is morally unacceptable, elitist, and medically risky."

For more information on today's demonstration contact: Holly Williams from People Against Eugenics 07775 603341, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or Rachel Hurst (Disability Awareness in Action) 07939 143068 (on Sept 30th).

Quotes from speakers.

Robert Edwards: 'Soon it will be a sin for parents to have a child which carries the heavy burden of genetic disease. We are entering a world where we have to consider the quality of our children.' (Speaking at European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, reported in Metro, 5 July 1999).

John Harris: "Eugenics is the attempt to create fine healthy children and that's everyone's ambition." Harris told the BBC that couples who choose to have disabled babies are "misguided". news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3120478.stm

John Harris: "I don't think infanticide is always unjustifiable." Daily Telegraph Jan 25 2004

Jeff McMahan: "Because of their rudimentary cognitive and emotional capacities {congenitally severely cognitively impaired human beings] have a relatively weak time-relative interest in continuing to live." The Ethics of Killing NY Oxford University Press 2002, p204.

"There are no morally significant differences between severely retarded human beings (PAE note: this means all human beings, not just newborn babies) and animals with comparable psychological capacities." Ibid, p228

Notes for editors

1) 'People Against Eugenics' is an alliance of disability rights campaigners, feminists, social justice activists and members of the public who have come together to oppose the eugenic agenda of this conference.
2) First International conference "Ethics, Science and Moral Philosophy of Assisted Human Reproduction", http://www.humanreproethics.org/welcome.htm.
3) The Eugenics Society, which was founded in, 1907 changed its name to The Galton Institute in 1989. In 1999 PAE held a protest at its conference in
London, at which three speakers (Arthur Jensen, Richard Lynn and Glayde Whitney) who are well known for claiming that black people are genetically
inferior to whites were speaking.
4) Children of Choice: Freedom and the New Reproductive Technologies, John Robertson (Princeton University Press, 1994).
5) 'Its only teeth - are there limits to genetic testing? Aldred, Crawford, Savariayan and Savulescu, 2003 Clinical Genetics: 63 333-339.
6) Gay Science Timothy F. Murphy Columbia University Press New York 1997.
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2. DISABILITY discrimination concern forces legal inquiry over eugenics conference
MEDIA RELEASE
PHOTO OPPORTUNITY
PLACE Royal Society, Carlton House Terrace, London SW1
DATE/ TIME 9 am Sept 30th 2004
Embargo: 8:30 AM Sept 30th 2004

On the day that the new disability discrimination legislation comes into force, People Against Eugenics (PAE) can reveal that a conference being held at the Royal Society today and tomorrow has raised such serious concerns about potential sex and disability discrimination that the Royal Society has been forced to take legal advice about whether it can continue. In response to a letter from (PAE), the Royal Society has been forced to release a statement saying that its lawyers were particularly concerned about four talks being given at the conference:

* Why we are morally obliged to genetically enhance our children - Julian Savulescu

* Gay science: choosing our children's sexual orientation - Timothy Murphy

* Preventing the existence of people with disabilities - Jeff McMahon

* Eugenics some lessons from the past -- David Galton

PAE will be demonstrating outside the conference from 8:30am tomorrow morning.

Disabled campaigner, Rachel Hurst, said: "Disabled people are human beings too - a 'healthy' nation is one in which difference is included and celebrated - not a nation designed by the powerful."

PAE supporter Holly Williams said: "This proves how dangerous and divisive this conference is. Even if the talks are not actually illegal, the Royal Society should never allow it premises to be used to promote eugenics and hatred of disabled people."

More information about the speakers was contained in our earlier press release, which can be obtained from the PAE e-mail address.

For more information on today's demonstration contact: Holly Williams from People Against Eugenics 07775 603341, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or
Rachel Hurst (Disability Awareness in Action) 07939 143068 (on Sept 30th).

Notes to editors

'People Against Eugenics' is an alliance of disability rights campaigners, feminists, social justice activists and members of the public who have come together to oppose the eugenic agenda of this conference. PAE supports women's right to choose (abortion).

First International conference "Ethics, Science and Moral Philosophy of Assisted Human Reproduction", http://www.humanreproethics.org/welcome.htm.