Talk:Harry H. Laughlin

Epilepsy
Did this guy have a family? Because if he did then he was breaking his own law...


 * Did you actually read the article? it says, "
 * Laughlin himself eventually discovered that he suffered from epilepsy, which was one of the subjects of study at the ERO and one of the criterion for compulsory sterilization under his own law. He and his wife, Pansy, married in 1902 but never had any children. After the ERO closed he returned to Iowa in 1939, and died January 26, 1943.
 * So he did follow his own principles, right or wrong. -Will Beback · † · 03:59, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

We don't know if he "followed his own principles" - we only know that they didn't have children. They may have simply had a fertility problem.

Neutrality
This article seems to be not neutral. Peter Li 06:04, 26 October 2007 (UTC)
 * How so? The fact is that both the contempraory and the historical assessment of the subject's accomplishments is poor. He lost funding as a scientist because the Carnegie Foundation didn't think his work had scientific merit, his field soon after become associated with an infamous regime, and today it's commonly viewed as a pseudoscience. I think we bend over backwards to be fair and neutral, and to list his accomplishments. Is there a specific problem? ·:· Will Beback  ·:· 07:23, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Page move
Why was the article moved from "Harry H. Laughlin" to "Harry Hamilton Laughlin"? ·:· Will Beback ·:· 05:26, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Best Book on Laughlin
War Against the Weak by Edwin Black, see waragainsttheweak.com, loaded with about 90 pages of primary footnotes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.28.47.93 (talk) 11:45, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

It is certainly a well-respected book on the subject. Calling it "Best Book on Laughlin" in the references section is subjective and inappropriate. I removed that characterization.Waltezell (talk) 20:16, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Disambiguation
A note in the article says disambiguation is needed about the reference to the "Carnegie Institute." Shortly after its founding, as early as 1902 (according the Edwin Black), the Carnegie Institution of Washington began financial support of the eugenics activities in Spring Harbor that Laughlin became employed by in 1910. It seems logical to assume that this is the same "Carnegie Institute" that the article says cut off funding. However, without a proper reference, I am hesitant to make a disambiguating change that might prove to be wrong.Waltezell (talk) 16:29, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Did Harry Laughlin have epilepsy?
It seems based on the other talk topic that this article used to mention Laughlin's alleged (ironic) epilepsy, but that has been removed. He is still listed on List of people with epilepsy though, so I thought I would do some digging into it. Of the two references given in that list, one is DNA: The Secret to Life, which states his ironic epilepsy as a juicy aside without inline reference. The other is a web source that cites a book I don't have access to. So no progress there.

A number of other web sources don't mention his epilepsy, but the ones that do often reference Edwin Black's book on eugenics.

Black's first claim is: "the rumor was that Laughlin himself suffered from an inherited disease that made him subject to uncontrollable seizures. These seizures had occasionally occurred in front of his colleagues at the ERO". Black in turn cites Daniel J. Kevles for this, but Kevles only verifies that Laughlin retired due to epileptic seizures, citing Laughlin's retirement file

Black's second claim is that "Childless and frustrated, Harry Hamilton Laughlin reportedly suffered his genetic disease in silence and died under its grip. The disease: epilepsy." but the source for that (click here to see it) doesn't seem to give any support to that.

This is all that I've managed to find, the strongest piece of evidence being Kevles saying that he had epileptic seizures.

This is the first thing I've done on wikipedia, so I hope this gets us somewhere. I think that Harry Laughlin should removed from the list of historical figures with epilepsy, and a section should be added to his own page discussing his possible epilepsy. Should I just go ahead and do that?

CosmoMinnea (talk) 10:31, 10 November 2020 (UTC)'

Update: I missed something in Kevles' book, a citation for a letter from Vannevar Bush to Laughlin asking for his retirement. Also, I have removed Laughlin from List of people with epilepsy and added mention of his seizures to the main article.