1. THE GENIUS FACTORY MARIAH UMHOEFER

2. THE REPOSITORY FOR GERMINAL CHOICE  A.k.a: The Nobel Sperm Bank  Founded by Robert Graham  Escondido, California  Opened in 1980, closed in 1999  Radical, controversial experiment

3. GOALS OF THE NOBEL SPERM BANK  Create new generations of healthy, intelligent humans  Reduce significance of genetic diseases  Track the children’s lives  Solve the nature v.s nurture debate  Save humanity

4. DAVID PLOTZ  “The Genius Babies and How They Grew” article- Slate 2001  Published “The Genius Factory” in 2005  Interviewed over 24 families  Self-proclaimed semen detective

5. HISTORY OF EUGENICS  Eugenics= well born  Late 19 th century in U.S and Britian  Overpopulation, Darwinism, and racial paranoia  Negative Eugenics  Positive Eugenics

6. SOCIAL DARWINISM  Survival of the fittest applied to mankind  Thomas Mathus  Francis Galton- Father of Eugenics  “Hereditary Genius”- 1869

7. U.S RACIAL TENSION & PARANOIA  Threats of immigration  Supporters: upper/middle class white Americans  Germany and American Eugenics

8. EUGENIC STERILIZATION  1910: Charles Davenport  Eugenics Record Office in Cold Springs Harbor, Long Island  Laws put in place against ‘mental defectives’  Eugenic sterilization of the unfit  By 1917, fifteen states legalized sterilization of the unfit  By the 1930s, over 35,000 Americans were sterilized  Another 25,000 were sterilized before the 1960s

9. POSITIVE EUGENICS TAKE OVER- MAYBE?  “Daedalus” written by J.B.S Haldane, 1923.  Dr. Addison David Hard & William Pancoat  The first artificial insemination: 1909

10. AID: ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION BY DONOR  Outrage, disbelief  Immoral, against god and nature  Silent tolerance  Quiet spread of AID

11. FROZEN SPERM!  1949: scientists discover how to freeze sperm  1950’s and 1960s: scientists perfect the freezing process  AID trend & business  AID at home

12. HOUSING THE SPERM  Hermann Muller  One of america’s first outstanding geneticists  Nobel Prize in medicine  Hermann Muller & Robert Graham  Future of Man  Plan the first sperm bank  Difference in ideals  Hermann Muller dies in 1967

13. ROBERT K. GRAHAM  Born June 9 th, 1906 in Harbor Springs, Michigan  Studied optometry at Ohio State  Had 8 children, from 3 different wives, and 1 out of wedlock

14. ROBERT GRAHAM’S INSPIRATION  Makes $100 million by inventing shatterproof glasses  “The Future of Man”- 1971

15. ROBERT GRAHAM’S (RACIST?) INSPIRATION  Disgust for the lower class  Blamed social welfare programs for societal decline  Emotional racism v.s Scientific racism? “save mankind from a genetic catastrophe, retrograde humans are swamping out the intelligent minority” –Robert Graham

16. OPEN FOR BUSINESS  Goal: find donors with a Nobel Prize in science  3 Nobel sperm donors by 1980  All donors kept confidential Robert Graham in his Repository

17. WILLIAM SHOCKLEY  Born in 1910  Only child of a wealthy engineer & ambitious mother  Physicist  Received the highest civilian award from the Navy  Silicon Valley  1956: Awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing the transistor William Shockley

18. SHOCKLEY’S REPUTATION  Graham admired Shockley, funded his research  Research became racially based  Reputation decline 1960s-1970s “I would think that it would be quite likely that there was some significant amount of elimination of genetic diseases [in Nazi Germany]. Just as the autobahns were a good thing, maybe there were some other good things about Hitler.” –William Shockley

19. WILLIAM SHOCKLEY & THE NOBEL SPERM BANK  1 st to donate a sample in 1977, and again in 1978  February 29 th,1980: Public debut of the Repository for Germinal Choice  William Shockley in the public eye  Graham’s biggest liability

20. CHANGES TO THE REPOSITORY  End all association with William Shockley  No Nobel sperm, no Nobel babies  Search for tall, handsome, intelligent men  1982: Good sperm, but no pregnancies

21. 1 ST BABY IS BORN! – VICTORIA KOWALSKI  Born April 1982 to Joyce and Jack Kowalski  Destined to be a genius  Kowalski parents controversy

22. 2 ND BABY IS BORN! – DORON BLAKE  Born in August of 1982 to mother Afton Blake  “Genius baby”: using computers, playing chess, learning algebra and Einstein’s theory of relativity  Robert Graham’s shining star Doron BlakeDoron & Afton Blake

23. MORE BABIES!  Women want genius sperm  Mid 1980s: Dozen of babies were born each year  Robert Graham dies 2 years before Repository closes  Over 200 children born by the time the Repository closed in 1999.  Mystery of the genius babies

24. INVESTIGATING “THE GENIUS FACTORY”: DONORS  David Plotz: lead ‘detective’, author of “The Genius Factory”  Donor Coral: Jeremy Sampson  Father of Tom Legare & Alton Grant  Fathered an estimated 30 children  Michael: Donor & natural-born son of Nobelist  Extreme narcissism in donors?

25. INVESTIGATING “THE GENIUS FACTORY”: DONORS  Rationalists v.s Egotists  Donor White: Roger

26. FLAWS OF THE REPOSITORY FOR GERMINAL CHOICE  Donor Records & tracking the children’s lives  Older donors=higher risks  Genius sperm is a rip off  Genetic Expectations  Nature vs. Nurture, the forever unsolved mystery  Family Disparities, absent father

27. IMPACTS OF THE REPOSITORY FOR GERMINAL CHOICE  Brought over 200 children into the world!  Transformed how we think about babies  Turned sperm banks into a business

28. SPERM BANKS TODAY  Basically all sperm banks are genius sperm banks today  Lesbians

29. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS  Do you think Robert Graham, founder of the Nobel Sperm Bank, was truly a racist, or just a product of his time in history?  Do you think the outcome/reputation of the Nobel Sperm Bank would be different if William Shockley, and the other controversies, weren’t associated with it?  If you were unable to have children, would you consider applying to the Nobel Sperm bank? (assuming it is the 1980s, not today)