Hidden in Plain Sight - The Genetics of Zombies
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Tom Kelly argues that eugenics programs aimed at eliminating "zombie genes" would be ineffective and unethical. While some view zombies as a genetic disease, others see it as a contagious condition, with different policy implications. Historically, reactions to outbreaks have varied depending on whether the condition was seen as genetic or contagious, with genetic views sometimes leading to misguided and harmful eugenics policies rather than coexistence and understanding between the affected and unaffected.
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Hidden in Plain Sight - The Genetics of Zombies
- 1. DUNEDIN Hidden in Plain Sight: Why Eugenics won’t work Tom Kelly PhD Candidate in Genetics Dept of Biochemistry, University of Otago
- 5. Could “infection” susceptibility be Genetic? Zombie Gene
- 7. Francis Galton (1822-1911) Advocated Racial Hygiene
- 9. Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) Applied Racial Hygiene
- 11. Is zombie eugenics effective or ethical?
- 14. Zombie outbreak If it’s genetic: ๏ Eugenics ๏ Segregation ๏ Gene Therapy Research If it’s contagious: ๏ Containment ๏ Quarantine ๏ Vaccine Research
- 15. Historical reaction If was genetic: If was contagious:
- 19. We don’t need a cure
- 20. We’ll Coexist Be nice to zombies
Editor's Notes
- What do Geneticists Study? How? What Lies in Our DNA Susceptibility and Disease Risk
- Mutations Human Disease and Pathogen Evolution
- Genes aren’t always expressed, recessive, carriers
- Could Zombies be Genetic What if we could test for carriers? If we do, what then?
- Genetic Testing New Technologies & Ethics (e.g., GINA 2008)
- Galton was just insane/obsessed with hereditary intelligence Obsessed with Hereditary Genius Developed the Theory of Racial Hygiene
- Learning from history: these problems were tackled before. Eugenics, selective breeding of people for intelligence or gene purity
- Sound familiar? But it’s not Genocide Didn’t start with Hitler, Galton was just insane/obsessed with hereditary intelligence
- Introduce Zombies in an evolutionary context -> Selection
- Zombies could survive, spread, maintain jobs and relationships -> Often no clear selective benefit
- No selection -> HW Equilibrium Proportion of alleles, genotypes in popn
- Rare allele -> Carriers vastly outnumber affected Artificial selection against carriers in ineffective
- Scientific response to an outbreak: look fairly similar Why is one way more disturbing than the other?
- They’ve been done before: Nazis (not the Jew part) and WHO (small pox) Eugenics failed from misunderstanding fundamental science
- Environment Hereditability Environmental effects
- Most diseases involve both Genes and Environment We need to understand both to design interventions
- Or do we? Issue already faced with Autism, Blindness and Deafness?
- We may have to coexist
- We may have to coexist