History of Human Genetics

Heike I. Petermann studied history and German literature at the Friedrich Alexander University in Erlangen. Her two main fields of interests are the history of anaesthesiology and the history human genetics. Since 2000 she has been secretary of the DGAI's Arbeitskreis für Geschichte der Anästhesie. She was also member of editorial office of 55 years German Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine. Tradition and Innovation. In 2011 she started her own research project on the history of human genetics, funded by the DFG. She has also been involved in organising international conferences.

Peter S. Harper was born in Barnstaple, UK, and was educated at Oxford University, with medical training in London. After clinical posts in neurology and paediatrics he entered the field of medical genetics and worked first in Liverpool with Cyril Clarke and then as research fellow with Victor McKusick at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. After completing his doctoral thesis, in 1971 he founded and developed a medical genetics institute at the School of Medicine in Cardiff, Wales, where he continued his research on myotonic dystrophy, together with research on Huntington's disease and other neurogenetic disorders.His work has made a major contribution to our understanding of these and other disorders; he also developed a comprehensive medical genetics service for Wales. His many publications include Practical Genetic Counselling, which is now in its 7th edition and has been translated into numerous languages.In the past 15 years he has focused on documenting and preserving the history of human and medical genetics, founding the "Genetics and Medicine Historical Network" and publishing a number of books with a historical theme, including A Short History of Medical Genetics(2008).

Susanne Doetz studied medicine at the Humboldt Universität/Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin. She is a visiting scientist at the Institute of History of Medicine and Ethics in Medicine at the Charité in Berlin. Her research interests include the history of medicine during the time of National Socialism, and the history of eugenics and human genetics. Her current research project is titled "Establishing genetic counselling in the GDR in the area of conflict between science, politics and the public", and is supported by the DFG (German Research Foundation).

Written by 30 authors from all over the world, this book provides a unique overview of exciting discoveries and surprising developments in human genetics over the last 50 years.

The individual contributions, based on seven international workshops on the history of human genetics, cover a diverse range of topics, including the early years of the discipline, gene mapping and diagnostics. Further, they discuss the status quo of human genetics in different countries and highlight the value of genetic counseling as an important subfield of medical genetics.

Unique overview of over 50 years of human genetics research

Introduction Heike I. Petermann, Peter S. Harper, and Susanne Doetz
Part I Workshops on the History of Human Genetics
The International Workshops on Genetics, Medicine and History:An Overview, 2003-2015Peter S. Harper and Heike I. Petermann
Part II Beginning of Human Genetics
Ancestral Concepts of Human Genetics and Molecular Medicinein Epicurean Philosophy Christos Yapijakis
Bateson and the Doctors: The Introduction of Mendelian Geneticsto the British Medical Community 1900-1910Alan R. Rushton
Part III Genetics and Medicine
Pedigrees and Prejudices: Pre-WWII Inherited Disease Classificationat the US Eugenics Record OfficePhilip K. Wilson
Aldred Scott Warthin's Family 'G': The American Plot Against Cancerand Heredity (1895-1940)Toine Pieters
Genetic Discrimination in the Doctoring of Cancer and Alcoholism Stephen Snelders, Charles D. Kaplan, Frans J. Meijman, and Toine Pieters
The Genomization of Biology: CounterbalancingRadical ReductionismRicardo Noguera-Solano, Rosaura Ruiz-Gutierrez,and Juan Manuel Rodriguez-Caso
A Brief History of Uncertainty in Medical Genetics and Genomics Reed E. Pyeritz
Part IV Countries
"Nature's Laboratories of Human Genetics": Alpine Isolates,Hereditary Diseases and Medical Genetic Fieldwork, 1920-1970Pascal Germann
Some Thoughts on Genetics and Politics. The HistoricalMisrepresentation of Scandinavian Eugenics and SterilizationNils Roll-Hansen
Changing the Point of View: The History of Human Genetics as anApplied Science in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1945-1975Heike I. Petermann
Herbert Bach (1926-1996): One of the Pioneers of Human Geneticsin East Germany (GDR) JEURorg Pittelkow
Concise History of Prenatal Diagnostic Service in RussiaVladislav S. Baranov
Foundation of the International Federation of Human Genetic Societies:The Catalyst Karen Birmingham
Part V Gene Mapping
The First Human Genetic Map 1936Alan R. Rushton
Glasgow Contributions to Human Gene MappingMalcolm A. Ferguson-Smith
Human Gene Mapping: The Mass Media Iconography of the HumanGenome Project in the Most Popular Greek NewspapersConstantinos Morfakis
Part VI Narrated History
National Human Genome Research Institute History of GenomicsOral History Program: An Example of "Triangulation"Christopher Donohue
Narrating Genes: How Patients with Chronic Inflammatory BowelDiseases Interpret an Emerging Disease Aetiology and How We CanMake Sense Out of It by Developing a Historically and SociologicallyInformed FrameworkDana Mahr
Part VII Genetic Counselling
The Establishment of Genetic Counselling in Sweden: 1940-1980Maria BjEURorkman and Anna Tunlid
Counselling, Risk and Prevention in Human Genetic Early Diagnosisin the Federal Republic of GermanyBirgit Nemec and Gabriele Moser
"The Happiness of the Individual Is of Primary Importance":Genetic Counselling in the GDRSusanne Doetz<
Remarks on the History of Genetic Counselling in Czechoslovakia,1945-1990Michal V. Simunek
The Establishment of Human Genetic Counselling in Austria in the1970s in Between the Establishment of Human Genetics and theEugenic Indication of AbortionKatja Geiger and Thomas Mayer
Genetic Counselling in Belgium: The Centre for Human GeneticsGenetic Counselling for Mediterranean Anaemia in Post-war GreeceAlexandra Barmpouti
Karyotyping and the Emergence of Genetic Counselling in Mexicoin the 1960sAna Barahona
Newborn Screening on the Cusp of Genetic Screening: From Solidarityin Public Health to Personal CounsellingMargherita Brusa and Michael Y. Barilan
Feminist Criticism of Genetic Counselling in the Second Halfof the Twentieth CenturyShachar Zuckerman
The Evolving Concept of Non-directiveness in Genetic CounsellingAngus Clarke
A Comparative and Social History of Genetic Counselling?Jean-Paul Gaudilliere