Bob Resta

Guest Post: They Canceled Our Anti-Eugenics Talk. The Censorship Proved Our Point.

by Ambreen Khan, Kim Zayhowski, Robert Resta, and Laura Hercher This piece is our team’s account of censorship and threats from members of the genetic counseling community. It is both testimony and a demand that our…

Great conversation. Props to @matthewcobb.bsky.social for the Icarus title of the Watson bio. But for the last act of his life a better title might be Icky-rus.

Reproductive autonomy has long been a core ethical principle of genetic counseling. But polygenic screening of embryos for non-medical traits uses the autonomy argument to justify the practice. THhs eugenic practice turns the ethical tables on us.

My paper in the Journal of Genetic Counseling -"Every Pedigree Tells a Story"- looks at different versions of Darwin's pedigree and shows how the graphic and informational content reflect the underlying eugenic ideology and biases of the pedigrees' creators.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author...

You will be visited by 3 spirits.

Selective Amnesia, Part 2: Guardians of The Gene Pool A few weeks ago in this space, drawing on the research of others, I wrote about how geneticists have created a collective memory of eugenics in which they put all the “bad” eugenics beh…

Nathaniel Comfort, Alex Minna-Stern, Diane Paul, and the late Gar Allen profoundly impacted my thinking about eugenics and genetic counseling. Eugenics didn’t disappear after WW2. For example, eugenic ideology was baked into the first decades of medical genetics. thednaexchange.com/2020/06/28/s...

Unfortunately the police investigation is proceeding at a snail’s pace.

But Charlemagne alone was not enough to satisfy Pearson’s eugenic appetite. Also included in the pedigree were Scottish Kings and William the Conqueror and “Eastern Emperors” and more.

Pearson's Pedigree for Charles Darwin | Professor Joe Cain Karl Pearson's pedigree for Charles Darwin (GALT364) dates from 1923 and combines old and new data, collaborating with Francis Swift Darwin and Ida McLearn.

A century ago, Karl Pearson, eugenicist, statistician extraordinaire, and acolyte of Francis Galton, created a dubious pedigree of Darwin that traced both his maternal and paternal ancestries back over a thousand years to various royals, including Charlemagne profjoecain.net/charles-darw...

You da’ best. Thanks. rgresta@icloud.con

Many thanks. A gold star will be placed next to your name.

What is the reference source for that pedigree?

Thanks for the Hellstrom reference. Unfortunately it does not appear to be readily available.

Great pedigree. I’m interested in the history of pedigrees - what is the source reference for this one?

3 homers, 10 K’s. To win the pennant. Qualifies for Baseball Mythology, a land that exists beyond Sabremetrics.

My DNA Contains Multitudes. So Does Yours.

The genetic variation within our bodies is often neglected in discussions of DNA. But each of us contains a fantastical number of genomes that keep shape-shifting throughout our lives. We should celebrate our intra-person genetic variability. Call it…

Covid sucks, plain and simple.

Autistic Scientists Discover Link Between Childhood Vaccines and the Development of Normie Behavior

A team of autistic scientists studying childhood vaccines have found a strong link to normie behavior. Their research revealed that the vast majority of children exposed to the

1/5

These findings will be reported in The Onion and on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update.
5/5

And most importantly for mothers everywhere, they no longer need to blame their parenting skills for their child’s normie behavior.
4/5

Avoidable tragedy!”

The researchers highlighted the immediate benefits of their findings. Normies can now be prevented by avoiding childhood immunizations. In keeping with RFK Jr.’s HAHA, er, uh, I mean MAHA, agenda, we can create a national database of the most severe cases of normies.
3/5

MMRV vaccine, all of whom had been developing typically to that point, almost immediately began displaying behaviors from across the normie spectrum. One researcher stated “It was eerie how some of them would try to make eye contact, and their emotions were uncontrollable. Such an
2/5

Autistic Scientists Discover Link Between Childhood Vaccines and the Development of Normie Behavior

A team of autistic scientists studying childhood vaccines have found a strong link to normie behavior. Their research revealed that the vast majority of children exposed to the

1/5

World Athletics released guidelines, effective this week, that defines female as anyone with a negative SRY gene test. Read my critique of these regulations, from the perspective of a genetic counselor, at The DNA Exchange.

A recent ad campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney touting a pair of jeans has raised criticisms of eugenic overtones. Actually it's part of a long historical tradition of ads that utilize eugenic tropes to sell products.

That low hanging pfruit is pfood for thought

I used to read Winnie the Pfooh to my kids.

Pfection!

Are you pfooling me?

I have a theory that back in the day Jules Pfoofer would have drawn a cartoon about these puns. But it’s just a theory and no theory is fool-pfoof.