Dr. Andrew Moeller (Oxford) Lecture: 'What I Wish I Knew' series, titled: What I Wish I Knew About Eugenics in the Age of Gene Editing.

Dr. Andrew Moeller (Oxford) will give the first lecture of this Spring’s ‘What I Wish I Knew’ series, titled: What I Wish I Knew About Eugenics in the Age of Gene Editing.

Is germline genome editing eugenics? This talk begins from that question to shed light on related ones, such as what is or was eugenics, what we can and cannot learn from the history of eugenics, and if and where we might find eugenic practices and rhetoric in the present day.

This event will be of special interest to pre-med and medical students and those interested in the health professions more generally. 

Andrew Moeller is the project leader for Biotechnology and the Humanities, based at the Medical Humanities Research Hub, TORCH, University of Oxford. He is also a hosted research fellow at the Uehiro Oxford Institute and an associate member of the History Faculty. As a historian, his current research focuses on the history of human enhancement. His work on the Biotechnology and the Humanities project addresses present-day applications of technologies aimed at human enhancement, with a particular emphasis on questions of human identity. He has recently published a book titled Be Fruitful and Multiply: Eugenics and Other Anglican Efforts to Control Fertility in Interwar England.

The day after the lecture (January 13th, 9.00-10.00 am), Dr. Moeller will host a small gathering over breakfast for a more intimate conversation with students. To attend this meeting, please contact Prof. Jose Maria Andres Porras (jandresp@unc.edu). Seats are limited.