Eugenics and Genetics 
choose the fathers of their children, will they not choose just 
the more notorious projections of their own images, exaggerated 
by the publicity given to advertised donors ? 
Comfort: Dr. Lederberg, what makes you think that we 
could make ourselves less likely to blow ourselves up by a genetic 
increase in intelligence? 
Lederberg: I didn’t say I thought we would succeed; I said 
I think this is our underlying motivation for attempting genetic 
control. 
Comfort: I should think that it is not so much low I.Q.’s, 
but. personality problems and emotional disturbances which 
were the cause of our liability to blow ourselves up. 
Lederberg: ‘These are just as likely to be under genetic 
control. 
Comfort: ‘They may be, but in man there is a large latitude 
for training. Dr. Trowell spoke about breeding a generation 
that displayed cruelty and efficiency. I think one could do 
this—or for that matter do the opposite—much more simply by 
upbringing than one can by trying to alter genetic constitution. 
Bronowski: I would still like an answer to my question. 
What is the evidence that genetically the human population is 
deteriorating ? 
Huxley: The evidence is mainly deductive, based on the 
fact that we are preserving many more genetically defective 
people than before, and are getting a lot of radioactive fallout. 
Meanwhile, the study of intelligence in Scottish children which 
you cited is not valid evidence. During the period between the 
first and the second tests, children generally were becoming 
larger, were developing more rapidly, and therefore were be- 
coming more intelligent for their chronological age. 
The important point, however, as Lederberg said, is not the 
negative one of deterioration (although it might become so if 
there were greatly increased fallout); the main thing is to aim 
at positive improvement. Much is possible and there are 
methods to do it. You need not start with drastic methods; 
nobody is going to solve the population problem by saying that 
a certain number of people are not going to be allowed to have 
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