From eugenics to the "new" genetics: "The play's the thing"

Fordham Law Review

Volumn 79, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 407-433

  Rothenberg, Karen H ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SCHOOL OF LAW   (United States)

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EID: 78650008439     PISSN: 0015704X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (261)

1. Tamsen Wolff recognized this link among eugenics, heredity, and early twentiethcentury American drama in her book, Mendel's Theatre. TAMSEN WOLFF, MENDEL'S THEATRE: HEREDITY, EUGENICS, AND EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN DRAMA (2009). Wolff provides excellent in-depth analyses of plays during the eugenics era and in fact was a source for the selection of the eugenic plays, including To-morrow, The Blood of the Fathers, and Strange Interlude.
2. Id.
3. In preparation for this project, many plays were reviewed that address heredity, eugenics, and genetics. See, e.g., Eugéne Brieux, Damaged Goods (John Pollock trans., A. C. Fifield 1914) (addressing the dire consequences of a respectable young man's decision to go ahead with his marriage despite being diagnosed with syphilis);
4. Susan Glaspell, The Verge (Smill, Maynard & Co. 1922) (containing an ambiguous message that recognizes the empowering potential of hereditary experimentation but criticizes eugenically-prescribed social roles for women);
5. Angelina Weld Grimké, Rachel (Corhhill Co. 1920) (an antilynching play written by a black female playwright and poet in which the main character deprives herself of motherhood because she does not want to bring children into such a racist world);
6. Henrik Johan Ibsen, Ghosts (R. Farquharson Sharp trans., E. P. Dutton & Co., 4th prtg. 1917). Ghosts was a precursor to treatment of eugenics in theatre and an early example of the dramatic potential of heredity. Ibsen was particularly concerned with examining the effect of the past on the present, in this case, through congenital syphilis. There are many modern plays of varying quality, some commissioned, on the topic of genetics and evolution.
7. See, e.g., Kent R. Brown, Designer Genes, (Dramatic Publ'g Co. 2005) (addressing the ethical implications of science in an era of "designer children");
8. Caryl Churchill, A Number (Nick Hern Books 2004) (containing an interesting examination of issues raised by cloning: loss of human individuality, importance of environmental factors in shaping personality, and the extent of human similarity revealed by DNA);
9. Carl Djerassi, ICSI (Univ. Wis. Press 2008) (describing a well-known scientist who defends the creation of ICSI-a new form of reproductive technology-on a talk show, and the play also delves into both the scientific aspects and societal implications);
10. Carl Djerassi, Immaculate Misconception (Imperial Coll. Press 2000) (consisting of a scientist's attempts to integrate logic and emotion by injecting her lover's seed into her own egg in an ICSI experiment; the play questions the ethics of scientific research on reproductive technology);
11. Carl Djerassi, Taboos (Univ. Wis. Press 2008) (addressing the ways in which new reproductive technologies can redefine the traditional notion of family within the context of a lesbian couple who conceive a child via in vitro fertilization);
12. Peter Goodchild, The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial (L. A. Theatre Works 2006) (addressing the issues of fundamentalism versus evolution in the Scopes Monkey Trial);
13. Lisa Loomer, Expecting Isabel (Dramatists Play Serv. 2005) (describing a couple that tries to start a family through various attempts at reproductive technologies and adoption while addressing hereditary and environmental influence on character);
14. Jeff Nisker, Orchids (2005) (a musical about preimplantation genetic diagnosis);
15. Kenneth Nowell, Helix 999 (2006) (exploring implications of a genetics company that secretly created humans for the government);
16. Seth Rozin, Reinventing Eden (2001) (describing a respected geneticist, whose life and career are thrown into question when investigations reveal that he once experimented on his own family);
17. Portia Smith, Genetics for Blondes (2004) (a comedy that "separates the facts from mistruths and misconceptions in a way that even blondes can understand" (quoting Genetics for Blondes, SOHO THEATRE, http://www.sohotheatre.com/pl350.html (last visited Oct. 23, 2010)));
18. Timberlake Wertenbaker, After Darwin (Faber & Faber 1998) (a fictional play-within-a-play based on Darwin's theory of evolution);
19. Cripsin Whittell, Darwin in Malibu (Dramatists Play Serv. 2007) (a comedic play that hypothesizes about a beach-bound Darwin, musing about life, death, and love with his friend, Thomas Huxley);
20. Charles Wray, Still Life (Parthian Books 2005) (addressing the responsibility of the individual to the betterment of humankind, and raising questions about the search for human perfection and extending life).
21. See generally TROY DUSTER, BACKDOOR TO EUGENICS (2d ed. 2003);
22. DANIEL J. KEVLES, IN tHE NAME OF EUGENICS: GENETICS AND THE USES OF HUMAN HEREDITY (1985);
23. WENDY KLINE, BUILDING A BETTER RACE (2001);
24. DIANE B. PAUL, CONTROLLING HUMAN HEREDITY: 1865 TO THE PRESENT (1995).
25. KLINE, supra note 3, at 2.
26. Id. at 9-10.
27. See generally WOLFF, supra note 1.
28. In fact, theatre's obsession with the underlying question of fate goes back much further to the tragedies of the ancient Greeks. Id. at 7.
29. Id. at 87-89.
30. KLINE, supra note 3, at 17. During the opening scene, Womankind reminds Mankind that there "yet is work to be done in the world" before establishing a superior race. Id. (internal quotation omitted). However, Womankind gives birth to Neglected Child because she is "corrupted" by hedonistic pleasures and ignores her duty to better her race.
31. Id. As a result, the child suffers from disease and dies.
32. Id. By the end of the play, Womankind has given birth to Fortunate Child after resolving to "pledge [her] future to bringing up a race physically perfect and mentally enlightened."
33. Id. (internal quotation omitted). This performance was viewed by 5000 audience members who attended the Exposition.
34. Id.
35. Paul, supra note 3, at 55. Wendy Kline goes so far as to say that eugenics played a central role in modern reevaluations of female sexuality and morality.
36. KLINE, supra note 3, at 6.
37. Kline, supra note 3, at 16.
38. See generally JOSE VAN DUCK, IMAGENATION: POPULAR IMAGES OF GENETICS 36 (1998).
39. HUMAN GENOME PROJECT INFORMATION: ETHICAL, LEGAL, AND SOCIAL RESEARCH ISSUES, available at http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human-Genome/ research/elsi.shtml (last visited Oct. 23, 2010).
40. DOROTHY NELKIN & M. SUSAN LINDEE, THE DNA MYSTIQUE: THE GENE AS A CULTURAL ICON 16 (1996). The science of genetics is extraordinarily complex and has therefore been filtered through popular culture to the public sphere, where its image may often bear little resemblance to scientific reality. There have been many science fiction films made about the genetic perils of manipulating and changing DNA.
41. See, e.g., TWILIGHT PEOPLE (Four Assocs. Ltd. 1973);
42. THE UNBORN (Califilm 1991);
43. X-MEN (Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. 2000).
44. See generally David A. Kirby, The Devil in Our DNA: A Brief History of Eugenics in Science Fiction Films, 26 LITERATURE & MED. J. 83 (2007). Public interest has been consciously created through 'the popularization of genetics. Geneticists, journalists, authors, and playwrights have crowded the public perception with metaphors that simplify scientific ideas and relate them to everyday life. The common language of genetics is replete with references to codes, maps and blueprints.
45. See VAN DUCK, supra note 12, at 20. Ironically, this use of metaphor and analogy was equally important in the promotion of eugenic ideas in the early twentieth century, enabling its proponents to conflate the certainty of inherited physical traits with those that inform a person's actions and to compare eugenic solutions to preventative medicine.
46. KLINE, supra note 3, at 52;
47. see also R. Alta Charo & Karen H. Rothenberg, "The Good Mother": The Limits of Reproductive Accountability and Genetic Choice, in WOMEN & PRENATAL TESTING: Facing the Challenges of Genetic Technology 105 (Karen H. Rothenberg & Elizabeth J. Thomson eds., 1994).
48. See generally DUSTER, supra note 3.
49. See WOLFF, supra note 1, at 95-97.
50. Overt female sexuality was equated with delinquency and linked to the problem of "race suicide." Those concerned about the increasing laxity of female morality embraced the genetic explanation as well the eugenic solution.
51. Kline, supra note 3, at 20.
52. For example, Shaw's prescription for the breeding of a "revolutionary elite" appears in two plays, Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy and Back to Methuselah: A Metabiological Pentateuch, which were well-received by a society receptive to eugenic thinking.
53. See WOLFF, supra note 1, at 18.
54. Paul, supra note 3, at 75.
55. Percy MacKaye, To-morrow (Frederick A. Stokes Co. 1912).
56. Id. at v.
57. Id. act 1 at 22.
58. See Wolff, supra note 1, at 125.
59. MacKaye, supra note 20, act 3 at 163.
60. Wolff, supra note 1, at 152-53
61. (quoting Theodore Roosevelt, Twisted Eugenics, Outlook, Jan. 3, 1914, at 30, 32, available at http://www.theodoreroosevelt.com/images/research/ treditorials/ol25.pdf).
62. MacKaye, supra note 20, act 1 at 23. This attitude clearly reflects the thoughts of Charles Davenport, a leading geneticist and perhaps the most well-known member of the eugenics movement, who advocated the responsibility of the state to act on the "discoveries" of eugenic science.
63. Wolff, supra note 1, at 64.
64. MacKaye, supra note 20, act 1 at 23. The most pernicious manifestation of state intervention was in forced sterilizations, which were overwhelmingly practiced on women. Roberta Cepko, Involuntary Sterilization of Mentally Disabled Women, 8 BERKELEY WOMEN'S L. J. 122, 123 (1993).
65. G. Frank Lydston, The Blood of the Fathers: A Play in Four Acts (The Riverton Press 1912).
66. Id. at 12.
67. Id. at 9.
68. Id. Understanding characteristics as predetermined and unchangeable was reflected in policy and was likewise used to undermine the need for social welfare and rehabilitation, suggesting that no social system could omit or cure its anti-social elements. Nelktn & Lindee, supra note 14, at 101.
69. Lydston, supra note 28, at 9-10.
70. Id. at 11;
71. see also WOLFF, supra note 1, at 70-71.
72. Lydston, supra note 28, act 2 at 176.
73. Id. act 1 at 132.
74. Id. act 4 at 241.
75. NELKIN & Lindee, supra note 14, at 23.
76. In 1915, a high-profile court ruling on what was popularly known as the Bollinger Baby case, demonstrated the widespread and diverse support for withholding treatment from defective newborns.
77. See generally MARTIN S. PERNICK, THE BLACK STORK: EUGENICS AND THE DEATH OF "DEFECTIVE" BABIES IN AMERICAN MEDICINE AND MOTION PICTURES SINCE 1915 (1996). Dr. Harry Haiselden refused to perform life-saving operations on babies with abnormalities, persuading parents that it was in their own interests as well as those of the infants. In 1916, Dr. Haiselden starred in The Black Stork, a popular film that warned against dysgenic marriages and promoted eugenic euthanasia in cases of defective infants.
78. See id.
79. Paul, supra note 3, at 57.
80. See WOLFF, supra note 1, at 60-65.
81. Deborah Kallikak, after being placed at the Vineland Training School for Backward and Feeble-Minded Children, became a charming and capable young woman with no apparent defects. Despite her teachers' protests, Goddard concluded that Deborah's biological inheritance was such that her feeblemindedness was merely concealed, and therefore an even greater threat to society. Goddard's diagnostic category of "moron" conflated race and gender anxieties, linked mental and moral deficiency and race suicide, and filled institutions across the country. The dubious methods of Goddard and his assistants raise the question of who is qualified to define abnormality and prescribe treatment. In this case, many thousands of women were condemned to sterilization and institutionalization on the basis of their "feebleminded" look.
82. See Wolff, supra note 1, at 79-86;
83. KLINE, supra note 3 at 24-25.
84. See WOLFF, supra note 1, at 86.
85. Id.
86. Id. Interest in making this book into a play persisted; in 1926, Goddard received a play based on his book entitled The Seed. Wolff suggests that ultimately neither play reached production stages because Goddard was "aware[] that [the] audience[] may not see what he hopes or expects they will see. He was particularly concerned about how a theatrical production might accurately present the feebleminded on the stage."
87. Id.
88. Eugenicists disapproved of miscegenation.
89. See, e.g., Loving v. Virginia, 388 U. S. 1, 6 n. 5 (1961)
90. (citing ALA. CONST, art. 4, § 102 (1958);
91. FLA. CONST, art. 16, § 24 (1965);
92. Miss. Const, art. XIV, § 263 (1956);
93. N. C. CONST, art. XIV, § 8 (1953);
94. S. C. Const, art. III, § 33 (1962);
95. TENN. CONST, art. II, § 14;
96. ALA. CODE, tit. 14, § 360 (1958);
97. Ark. Stat. Ann. § 55-104 (1947);
98. DEL. CODE ANN., tit. 13, § 101 (1953);
99. Fla. Stat. § 741.11 (1965);
100. Ga. Code Ann. § 53-106 (1961);
101. KY. REV. STAT. ANN. § 402.020 (Supp. 1966);
102. LA. REV. STAT. § 14:79 (1950);
103. MISS. CODE ANN. § 459 (1956);
104. MO. REV. STAT. § 451.020 (Supp. 1966);
105. N. C. GEN. STAT. § 14-181 (1953);
106. OKLA. STAT. tit. 43, § 12 (Supp. 1965);
107. S. C. CODE ANN. § 20-7 (1962);
108. TENN. CODE ANN. § 36-402 (1955);
109. TEX. PENAL CODE, ART. § 492 (1952);
110. W. VA. CODE ANN. § 4697 (1961));
111. see also Va. Code Ann. § 20-57 (1960). Eugenicists related certain kinds of behavior to mixed blood. Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern's 1927 musical, Show Boat, is a good example of racial marginalization in theatre and its main character, an actress called Julie, is revealed to be a mulatto, reinforcing the idea that people of mixed race were genetically predisposed to performance.
112. WOLFF, supra note 1, at 169, 181-83.
113. WOLFF, supra note 1, at 83.
114. Ch. 190, 43 Stat. 153 (repealed 1952).
115. Such countries included various Eastern European countries and Italy. DUSTER, supra note 3, at 13.
116. Id at 14. From its inception, then, the heredity theory ingrained in the eugenics movement was an adaptable one, ready to be appropriated by a variety of actors with diverse social and political agendas.
117. WOLFF, supra note 1, at 5.
118. See Scott W. Howe, Reassessing the Individualization Mandate in Capital Sentencing: Darrow's Defense of Leopold and Loeb, 79 IOWA L. REV. 989, 994-1012 (1994).
119. PAUL, supra note 3, at 42 (quotations omitted).
120. Id.
121. Scopes v. State, 278 S. W. 57 (Term. 1925).
122. This trial is ideally suited for reenactments in theatre; its most famous theatrical incarnation, Inherit the Wind, a 1955 play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, has also been made into films. INHERIT THE WIND (Stanley Kramer Prods. 1960). Another audio play by L. A. Theatre Works, called The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial, provides a more recent adaption of the trial transcripts. The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial, Teacher's Study Guide, L. A. Theatre Works, http://www.latw.org/acrobat/monkey.pdf.
123. 274 U. S. 200 (1927).
124. Id. at 208. The first state to pass a sterilization bill was Indiana in 1907, and California enacted its first eugenic-sterilization laws in 1909.
125. KLINE, supra note 3, at 50.
126. Buck, 274 U. S. at 207.
127. See generally PAUL A. LOMBARDO, THREE GENERATIONS, NO IMBECILES: EUGENICS, THE SUPREME COURT, and Buck v. Bell (2008).
128. Id. at 206.
129. Lombardo, supra note 57, at 137.
130. Buck became the green light for states around the country to pursue sterilizations, especially of the feebleminded. Within four years of Buck, seventeen states had enacted or revised their laws to promote sterilization as a social policy. The number of sterilizations from 1931-1939 nearly tripled those performed during the 1920s. Over the years, state sterilization laws resulted in the compulsory sterilization of an estimated 63, 000 Americans and justified, in particular, the state's power over the female body as a form of social control.
131. MARK H. HALLER, EUGENICS: HEREDITARIAN ATTITUDES IN AMERICAN THOUGHT 140 (1963);
132. KLINE, supra note 3, at 107;
133. JACQUELINE VAUGHN SWITZER, Disabled Rights: American Disability policy and the Fight for Equality 38 (2003).
134. Eugene O'Neill, Strange Interlude (Boni + Liveright, Inc. 1928).
135. See generally WOLFF, supra note 1, at 141-67.
136. An earlier example of a play exploring themes of heredity and eugenics is The Verge, written by Susan Glaspell in 1922. Like Strange Interlude, The Verge centers on a female character and the peripheral men who surround her. The main character, Claire, rebels against the eugenic idea of creating a better species, both in her experimentation with breeding plants and in her own attitude to motherhood, which she rejects. Her attempts to recreate herself eventually drive her mad. Eugene O'Neill was a disciple of Glaspell, and it is likely that Strange Interlude was influenced by The Verge.
137. WOLFF, supra note 1, at 140, 145.
138. Id.
139. O'Neill, supra note 61.
140. See supra note 28 and accompanying text.
141. O'Neill, supra note 61.
142. Id.
143. See WOLFF, supra note 1, at 141. In 1932, the play was made into a film starring Clark Gable and Norma Shearer. STRANGE INTERLUDE (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 1932).
144. Walter Winchell called his review "Another Eugenic O'Neill Baby." WOLFF, supra note l, at 142.
145. The responses to the 1963 and 1985 revivals of Strange Interlude were less ready to identify its eugenic message. Indeed, more recent productions have emphasized Nina's insanity and the unhappiness of women in relationships more than with the formerly central idea of heredity. The Actors Studio production in 1963 starred Jane Fonda and received mixed reviews. Few critics of the 1984-1985 stage and television revival mentioned the eugenic subject matter and several noted that what O'Neill had written as a serious drama had become a comedy.
146. See generally Walter Kerr, Stage View: This "Interlude" Gets a Strange Response, N. Y. TIMES, Mar. 3, 1985, available at http://www.nytimes. com/1985/03/03/theater/stage-view-this-interlude-gets-a-strangeresponse.html.
147. Reviewers of the Neo-Futurist production of 2009 also neglected the eugenic content. Chris Jones, "Strange Interlude" Indeed; It's I a.m. and IJust Got Back from the Goodman, CHI. TRIB., Mar. 7, 2009, available at hrtp://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/the-theater-loop/2009/03/ neofuturists-strange-interlude-wraps-up-oneill-fest-atgoodman.html.
148. The play was not universally acclaimed; the mayor of Boston banned Strange Interlude from the city because of its depiction of abortion. Harvard University students launched a petition against the ban. Petition Against Play Ban Starts, HARVARD CRIMSON, Sept. 27, 1929.
149. TOMORROW'S CHILDREN (Bryan Foy Prods. 1934).
150. Id.
151. See id.
152. Id. The doctor is opposed by the unwavering judge, who asks, "Do you agree that this girl should be allowed to bring more children like that into the world?" alluding to a woman's duty to society.
153. Id.
154. KLINE, supra note 3, at 110. However, the 1930s did not see the complete dismantling of the eugenics movement; eugenics leaped further into the public eye with the case of Ann Cooper Hewitt, a sexually rebellious young woman who sued her mother and two surgeons for sterilizing her without her knowledge in 1936.
155. Id. at 95. The case received massive press coverage and emphasized the importance of motherhood and the American family in a tumultuous decade.
156. Id. at 102-03.
157. Nazi eugenicists used Hairy Laughlin's work, and lawyers of Nazi doctors at the Nuremberg trials even read from the Buck opinion and cited it as a precedent in their defense.
158. See LOMBARDO, supra note 57, at xii-xiii.
159. Some ardent eugenicists continued, however, to admire the application of their ideas abroad: CM. Goethe wrote to Harry Laughlin in 1935, impressed "that Germany, by sterilization, and by stimulating birthrates among the eugenically highpowered, is gaining an advantage over us as to future leadership. " Letter from CM. Goethe to Harry Laughlin (Jan. 12, 1935), available at http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/topics-fs.pl?theme=41& search=germany%20future%201eadership&matches=1038.
160. Letter from L. C Dunn, Professor of Genetics, Columbia Univ., to John C. Merriam, (July 3, 1935), available at http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/ topics-fs.pl?theme=25&search=merriam%20dunn&matches= 1095, 1092, 1094, 1096, 1093.
161. See Lombardo, supra note 57, at 199.
162. HALLER, supra note 60, at 7.
163. NELKIN & LINDEE, supra note 14, at 34.
164. 316 U. S. 535 (1942).
165. See generally VICTORIA F. NOURSE, IN RECKLESS HANDS: SKINNER V. OKLAHOMA AND tHE NEAR TRIUMPH OF AMERICAN EUGENICS (2008).
166. Skinner, 316 U. S. at 543. The Supreme Court found that the sterilization statute, as written, could not be applied to Jack T. Skinner, a convicted felon. Skinner also dealt with a class issue, as the Oklahoma law stated that a criminal could be sterilized only if he committed a certain type of felony (blue-collar or lower class crimes); if the criminal had been convicted a white-collar felony three times, he would not be subject to the sterilization law.
167. See id.
168. Id. at 541;
169. see also NOURSE, supra note 83, at 15.
170. However, the case did not overrule Buck v. Bell, 21 A U. S. 200, 207 (1927), and for the "feebleminded", sterilizations continued for generations, especially among poor, black women in the South.
171. PAUL, supra note 3, at 124.
172. Id.
173. VAN DUCK, supra note 12, at 34-35.
174. 347 U. S. 483, 495 (1954).
175. Civil Rights Act of 1964, Pub. L. No. 88-352, 78 Stat. 241 (codified as amended in scattered sections of 5
176. 28, and 42 U. S. C. (2006)).
177. The Act also gave many rights to women including non-discrimination in the workplace. See id. See also Marcia L. McCormick, The Truth is Out There: Revamping Federal Antidiscrimination Enforcement for the Twenty-First Century, 30 Berkeley J. Emp. & Lab. L. 193, 223 & n. 182 (2009).
178. Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Pub. L. No. 89-236, 79 Stat. 911.
179. See supra note 48 and accompanying text.
180. Three Decades of Mass Immigration: The Legacy of the 1965 Immigration Act, CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES, http://www.cis.org/articles/1995/back395. html (last visited Oct. 23, 2010)
181. (quoting Letter to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House on Revision of the Immigration Laws, 1 PUB. PAPERS 594-97 (July 23, 1964)).
182. 388 U. S. 1 (1967).
183. Id. at 12.
184. Along with environmentalists and bioethicists, feminists challenged scientists' monopoly on a field that seemed to affect everyone, seeking to redefine genetics as a social and political issue. The Feminist International Network of Resistance to Reproductive and Genetic Engineering protested against the capitalist and patriarchal society that allowed the commercialization of biotechnology, thereby establishing a dichotomy between the natural female body and the chauvinistic brand of science that sought to corrupt it. See VAN DUCK, supra note 12, at 84-90.
185. Some envisaged a dystopian world in which women were reduced to breeders while others imagined the emancipation of women and minorities through genetic technology. See, e.g., MARGE PIERCY, WOMAN ON THE EDGE OF TIME (1977);
186. KATE WILHELM, WHERE LATE THE SWEET BIRDS SANG (1976). Both writers reflect on the politicization of genetics, the former equating it with male oppression and the latter predicting the democratization of biotechnology and the consequent eradication of sexual and racial difference.
187. See PIERCY, supra; Wilhelm, supra.
188. 410 U. S. 113 (1973).
189. Though no federal law permitted abortion prior to 1973, many state laws allowed for abortion of "defective" fetuses. States that had such laws included Kansas, Utah, Maryland, Iowa, and Tennessee. Martha Field, Killing "The Handicapped"-Before and After Birth, 16 HARV. WOMEN'S L. J. 79, 110-11 (1993).
190. DUSTER, supra note 3, at 39.
191. DUSTER, supra note 3, at 45-48.
192. The disability movement, which began in the 1940s and 1950s, gained significant strides in the 1970s with the adoption of two significant pieces of legislation: Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U. S. C. § 701 (2006), and Education for All Handicapped Children Act, Pub. L. No. 94-142, 89 Stat. 773
193. (codified as amended at 20 U. S. C. §§ 1400-1482 (2006)) (later renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
194. U. S. C. §§ 1400-1501 (2006)).
195. However, the landmark piece of legislation came in 1990, with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U. S. C. §§ 12101-213 (2006). The ADA prohibits discrimination based on disability and requires employers and places of public accommodation to make "reasonable modifications" to ensure fair treatment and accessibility to all members of the public.
196. U. S. C. § 12182 (b) (2XA) (ii) (2006).
197. In 1972, news broke about the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment, which studied the natural progression of the untreated disease in impoverished African American sharecroppers. When the experiment made national headlines, the public was outraged by its ethical contraventions. As a result of the Tuskegee experiment, Congress passed the National Research Act and established the National Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. Research Ethics: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, Tuskegee University, http://www.tuskegee.edu/global/story.asp?s=1207598 (last visited Oct. 23, 2010). When the experiment made national headlines, the public was outraged by its ethical contraventions. As a result of the Tuskegee experiment, Congress passed the National Research Act of 1974 and established the National Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research.
198. See, e.g., ROBERT J. LEVINE, ETHICS AND REGULATION OF CLINICAL RESEARCH 69-70 (1986).
199. The gay rights movement first picked up steam in the 1960s and 1970s, with landmark victories such as the Stonewall Uprising in New York and the election of Harvey Milk, an openly gay man, to office in San Francisco. See MILKFOUNDATION. ORG, HOME OF THE HARVEY B. MILK FOUNDATION, http:// milkfoundation.org/(last visited Oct. 23, 2010);
200. Stonewall Rebellion, N. Y. TIMES: TIMES TOPICS (Apr. 10, 2009), http://topics.nytimes.eom/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/ stonewall-rebellion/index.h tml. Various legislation on the state and federal level now prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
201. See Facts about Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation, Status as a Parent, Marital Status, and Political Affiliation, U. S. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-orientation-parent-marital- political.html (last visited Oct. 23, 2010).
202. See, e.g., Julie A. Baird, Playing It Straight: An Analysis of Current Legal Protections to Combat Homophobia and Sexual OrientationDiscrimination in Intercollegiate Athletics, 17 BERKELEY WOMEN'S L. J. 31, 35-36 (2002);
203. see also CAL. GOV'T CODE § 12940 (2010);
204. CAL. INS. CODE § 10141 (2010);
205. CONN. GEN. STAT. § 46A-81C (2009);
206. MD. CODE ANN., STATE GOV'T, § 20-304, 20-606. Moreover, the Supreme Court, in the 2003 case of Lawrence v. Texas, held that a Texas statute criminalizing sodomy was unconstitutional because it resulted in an invasion of an individual's right to privacy.
207. U. S. 558, 579 (2003). This case overturned the Court's previous decision in the 1986 case of Bowers v. Hardwick
208. U. S. 186 (1986), which upheld the validity of a Georgia statute that criminalized sodomy.
209. Bioethics became valued in genetics "because it applied abstract reasoning and precise definition to particular situations and questions that these new technologies and forms of knowledge posed, valuing informed choice, scientific progress and equity of access to genetic services."
210. ANNE KERR & TOM SHAKESPEARE, GENETIC POLITICS: FROM EUGENICS TO GENOME 164 (2002).
211. Two Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications research grants relevant to this project include the "Genetics in Literature, Film, and Popular Culture" grant for Jay Clayton at the Center for Genetics and Health Policy, Vanderbilt University supported a working group of scholars in literature, film, and media studies to examine the representation of genetics in literary and popular culture: the "Human Heredity in American Popular Culture" grant for Dorothy Nelkin at New York University explored the meaning of human genetics in popular culture, within the context of changing ideas about heredity and eugenics since the turn of the century.
212. See ELSI Research Program, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: NATIONAL HUMAN GENOME RESEARCH INSTITUTE, http://www.genome.gov/10001618 (last visited Oct. 23, 2010).
213. Francis S. Collins & Victor A. McKusick, Implications of the Human Genome Project for Medical Science, 285 J. AM. MED. ASS'N 5 (2001).
214. Advances in Genetics Research and Technologies: Challenges for Public Policy: Hearing Before the S. Comm. on Labor and Human Res., 104th Cong. (1996) (statement of Francis S. Collins, Director, National Center for Human Genome Research), available at http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/t960725a.html.
215. Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, Pub. L. No. 110-233, 122 Stat. 881.
216. Jonathan Tolins, The Twilight Of The Golds: A Play In Two Acts (Samuel French, Inc. 1992).
217. Alvin Klein, Young Playwright Feels Critics' Sting, N. Y. TIMES, Nov. 7, 1993, available at http://www.nytimes.com/1993/l1/07/nyregion/young-playwright- feels-criticsstings.html?pagewanted=1.
218. The most famous study on the alleged "gay gene" was published in 1993 by Dean Hamer, claiming that homosexuality was connected with the Xq28 gene. See Dean Hamer et al., A Linkage Between DNA Markers on the X Chromosome and Male Sexual Orientation, 261 SCIENCE, July 16, 1993.
219. Tolins, supra note 111, act 1 at 41.
220. Id.
221. Id. act 1 at 56.
222. Id.
223. Id. act 1 at 57.
224. Id. act 1 at 58.
225. Id. act 1 at 66-67.
226. Id. act 1 at 66.
227. Id. act 1 at 78.
228. Such scientific developments raise the familiar question: are some lives not worth living? Some women do not perceive they have a choice in accepting genetic testing; rather, they are presented with an illusion of choice. Conversely, many other women are denied the choice because they do not have access to testing services.
229. See Karen H. Rothenberg, The Law's Response to Reproductive Genetic Testing: Questioning Assumptions About Choice, Causation, and Control, 8 FETAL DIAGNOSIS & THERAPY 160, 161 (1993).
230. Klein, supra note 112.
231. Natalie Angier, Theater; Playing God, With Science as Midwife, N. Y. TIMES, Oct. 17, 1993.
232. Hamer, supra note 113.
233. Hamer's study has been critiqued for methodology and sample selection problems. Moreover, subsequent studies have been unable to confirm Hamer's results. Eliot Marshall, NIH "Gay Gene" Study Questioned, Vol. 268, SCIENCE, June 30, 1995
234. see also Erica Goode, Study Questions Gene Influence on Male Homosexuality, N. Y. TIMES, Apr. 23, 1999, available at http://www.nytimes.com/ 1999/04/23/us/study-questions-gene-influenceon-male-homosexuality.html. Nevertheless, the search for a biological explanation to homosexuality continues, and other studies have connected homosexuality to various other regions of the genetic code.
235. Richard Horton, Is Homosexuality Inherited?, FRONTLINE (July 1995), http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/assault/genetics/nyreview.html.
236. See Dean Hamer & Peter Copeland, LIVING WITH OUR GENES 193-96 (1998).
237. See, e.g, ROBIN GREGG, PREGNANCY IN A HIGH-TECH AGE: PARADOXES OF CHOICE (1995);
238. Robin Gregg, "Choice" as a Double-Edged Sword: Information, Guilt and Mother-Blaming in a High-Tech Age, 20 (3) Women & Health 53 (1993);
239. see also Rothenberg, supra note 123, at 163.
240. TWILIGHT OF THE GOLDS (Below the Belt Entm't 1996).
241. Gattaca (Columbia Pictures Corp. 1997).
242. The film's message, summarized in the tagline, is that "there is no gene for the human spirit."
243. Id.
244. Cassandra Medley, Relativity (2006), audio play available at http://castrolIer.com/podcasts/LaTheatreWorks/349595-LA%20Theatre% 20Works%20Relativity%20April%205, %202008, %20Part%201.
245. Id. act 2 sc.l.
246. Id.
247. Id.
248. See, e.g., Paula Abrams, Reservations about Women: Population Policy and Reproductive Rights, 29 Cornell Int'l L. J. 1, 4 (1996).
249. Medley, supra note 141, act 2, sc. 1.
250. Lisa Loomer, Distracted (Dramatists Play Serv. Inc. 2009) (on file with the Fordham Law Review).
251. Id. at 22.
252. Id.
253. Id.
254. Id. at 40.
255. Id at 45.
256. Erik Piepenburg, Living in an A. D. D. World: Lisa Loomer Talks About 'Distracted', N. Y. TIMES ARTS BEAT: THE CULTURE AT LARGE (Mar. 4, 2009, 4:20 PM), http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/living-in-an-add-world-lisa- loomer-talksabout-distracted/.
257. NELKIN & LINDEE, supra note 14, at 21.
258. See generally Duster, supra note 3.
259. Rothenberg, supra note 123, at 163.
260. WOLFF, supra note 1, at 111. Branford further proclaimed that this endeavor needed "the creative genius of poet and dramatist... and nothing else will do."
261. Id. (quoting Victor Branford, The Eugenic Theatre, 230).