Francis Crick
 Francis Crick    (molecular biologist, neuroscientist) | |
|---|---|
| Born | 8 June 1916 Weston Favell, Northamptonshire, England |
| Died | 28 July 2004 (Age 88) San Diego, California, US |
| Nationality | UK |
| Alma mater | University College London, University of London, University of Cambridge |
| Spouse | • Ruth Doreen Dodd • Odile Speed |
Received the 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine | |
Francis Harry Compton Crick was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist.[1]
He, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins received the 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine for deciphering the helical structure of the DNA molecule.
The Biological Future of Man
Francis Crick, who at the time of the 1962 symposium The Biological Future of Man had just been awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine, asked: Do people have the right to have children at all? during the discussion of "Eugenics and Genetics":
It would not be very difficult (…) for a government to put something into our food so that nobody could have children. Then possibly-and this is hypothetical-they could provide another chemical that would reverse the effect of the first, and only people licensed to bear children would be given this second chemical. This isn’t so wild that we need not discuss it. Is it the general feeling that people do have the right to have children? This is taken for granted because it is part of Christian ethics, but in terms of humanist ethics I do not see why people should have the right to have children. I think that if we can get across to people the idea that their children are not entirely their own business and that it is not a private matter, it would be an enormous step forward (emphasis added). If one did have a licensing scheme, the first child might be admitted on rather easy terms. If the parents were genetically unfavourable (emph. add.), they might be allowed to have only one child, or possibly two under certain special circumstances.[2]
