THE NEED OF A COURSE IN MEDICAL GENETICS IN THE 

 MEDICAL CURRICULUM 



A Pivotal Point in the Eugenic Program 



MADGE THURLOW MACKLIN 



Assistant Professor of Histology and Embryology, Medical School, University of Western 



Ontario, London, Canada 



The whole-hearted cooperation of the genetically trained medical practi- 

 tioner is an essential to the success of the eugenic program for the following 

 reasons. (1) He is necessary to determine who are physically and men- 

 tally qualified to be the parents of the next generation, if the better stock 

 is to be urged to reproduce in greater numbers. (2) He is the authority 

 who must decide as to what persons have inherited diseases. (3) Upon his 

 observations of disease in more than one member of the family, and upon 

 his accurate and systematic recording of these, depend the very material 

 with which the eugenic program deals. Without the physician who fur- 

 nishes clinical records of inherited disease in man, there would be little proof 

 of the necessity of eugenics. (4) He is a vital part in the education of the 

 public as to the value of and necessity for eugenics. He forms the court of 

 last appeal for the public in matters relating to disease. He is indispensable 

 in the program of sterilization, both as the actual operator, and in large part 

 as the initiator of reccmmendations for patients to be sterilized. The medi- 

 cal practitioner who is ignorant of the importance of heredity as an etio- 

 logical factor in producing disease may counteract the best efforts of eugenic 

 organizations. 



Have the members of the medical profession been trained so that they are 

 capable of fulfilling these tasks? What has been their education with re- 

 spect. to the fundamental principles of genetics, and with respect to the ap- 

 plication of these in the field of medicine? 



A survey of the approved leading schools of the United States, Canada 

 and England has elicited the following facts. First, the medical student 

 receives a very brief training in his biology course in genetics; too brief to be 

 adequate for his later needs. Secondly, this lack is seldom compensated for 

 in the medical course, the student hearing of heredity in disease only inci- 

 dentally, and only as the professor is impressed with the importance of 



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