Days Kemp

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Days Kemp (born August 28, 1896 in Brønderslev , † January 7, 1964 in Copenhagen ) was a Danish human geneticist and eugenicist . As director of the Institute of Human Genetics at the University of Copenhagen , he was a key figure in the development of genetics in Europe.

Life

Medical education

The son of a pastor began studying medicine at the University of Copenhagen in 1914. After graduating in 1921, he initially worked for two years at various hospitals. In 1923 he became a research assistant at the University Institute for General Pathology under Oluf Thomsen . A wide range of biological research was carried out at the institute, including blood typing, bacteriology and genetic biology . Kemp devoted himself primarily to endocrinology and received his doctorate in 1927 on the sexual characteristics of fetuses . He also looked at the importance of the pituitary gland for body growth and the development of sexual characteristics. In 1934 he published a textbook on endocrinology for students and doctors with Harald Okkels , which was also published in German in 1936.

Human geneticists and eugenicists

Researches

Thomsen had received government funding in 1927 to research and teach racial hygiene in Copenhagen, and he specifically trained Kemp as a human geneticist and eugenicist. Kemp had already worked on human chromosomes and is considered to be the first medical practitioner to recognize and practice the benefits of cultivating human tissue for chromosome research. He observed mitosis under the influence of heat, chemicals and ionizing radiation and the genetic disposition to cancer .

In 1932 Kemp reported on his research on prostitution . Almost all prostitutes, his case studies found, were mentally abnormal . He emphasized the influence of the genetic make-up, but did not consider any sterilization to have any great effect. Instead, he worked to improve the situation of the maids and criticized the practice of punishing prostitutes as useless. With that he had a decisive influence on the Danish anti-prostitution legislation. In 1932 he received a scholarship to study hereditary biology in the USA and Europe. In 1934 he received another travel grant to visit genetic research institutions in Europe. He also reported on Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer for the Rockefeller Foundation , as concerns about the ideological orientation of genetic research in National Socialist Germany had been voiced. According to Kemp, Verschuer was a staunch National Socialist but completely sincere, so his research, especially his twin research, could be viewed as objective and well-founded.

Attitude to the sterilization legislation

Since 1933, Kemp published regularly on eugenic issues. He preferred negative to positive eugenics. He defended the Danish Sterilization Act of 1929 as necessary in view of the fact that society was obliged to enable everyone to have a life worth living. His relationship to the National Socialist racial hygiene was ambivalent. Before the Second World War, Kemp refrained from criticizing the National Socialist forced sterilization . He praised the structure of the hereditary health courts , but also emphasized the differences between democracy and dictatorship and did not speak out in favor of forced sterilization. Instead, he advocated education and prevention through genetic counseling. The Danish Sterilization Act of 1934/35 nonetheless provided for sterilization without consent if social responsibility and abstinence on the part of the person concerned did not appear to be guaranteed. In practice, these were groups of people who were viewed as "anti-social" or "anti-social", such as the mentally handicapped, "feeble-minded", " psychopaths ", "vagrants" and prostitutes.

The Institute of Human Genetics in Copenhagen

On October 14, 1938, after negotiations with Thomsen and Kemp, the Rockefeller Foundation established an Institute for Human Genetics, which was transferred to the University of Copenhagen. Kemp was appointed director. The Rockefeller Foundation decided to promote genetic research in Denmark because hereditary family studies were easier to carry out than in other countries due to the Danish infrastructure with good civil records. With the support of the Danish government, the genetic recording of the population was carried out in the institute. In 1939, for example, it was recommended that all inmates of psychiatric institutions fill out the questionnaires of the Copenhagen Institute. Within a few years, around 50,000 Danes were recorded in the genetic register. The reputation of the Danish institute as one of Europe's leading research institutions was based on this data.

Kemp also campaigned for the anchoring of human genetics in medical studies . In 1938, on his initiative, human genetics became a compulsory subject. At the same time, genetic research such as family studies and genetic experiments on mice were carried out under his directive . By 1963 he was in charge of 40 doctoral theses, 25 of which were written in the first decade of the institute's existence. Most of them appeared in the institute's own publication series Opera ex Domo biologiae hereditariae University statistician Hafniensis . In addition to various monographs, Kemp himself published 130 scientific publications in various journals. From 1943 he was editor-in-chief of the journal Acta pathologica et microbiologica Scandinavica and worked on several handbooks and encyclopedias. In addition, the Copenhagen Institute served as arguably the world's first genetic counseling center . Last but not least, the provisions of the Danish Abortion Act of 1937, which allowed abortions for eugenic indications, were in view .

After the Second World War

In 1948, Kemp was appointed Professor of Human Genetics and Eugenics at the University of Copenhagen. As a scientist with excellent international connections, he endeavored to rebuild human genetics after the Second World War . On his initiative and with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation, the "First International Congress of Human Genetics" was held in Copenhagen in 1956, and Kemp was President. His attitude to Nazi racial hygiene consisted in postulating a strict separation between the perverted and excessive German Sonderweg - he spoke of the "Sturm und Drang period" - and the serious hereditary hygiene aimed at preventing diseases and suffering. For him, there was no internal connection between the eugenic movement and " pseudoscientific " Nazi racial hygiene, whereby he omitted the international recognition and international networking of this same racial hygiene before the Second World War. In 1957, Kemp still campaigned for sterilization to prevent hereditary diseases, which for him included certain intellectual disabilities and “nonsense”.

Kemp has received many awards for his commitment. In 1953 he was elected to the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences , in 1955 he was a member of the State Commission for Atomic Energy . In 1958 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Utrecht ; In 1961 he became an honorary citizen of Salerno .

Fonts

  • Study about knight characters hos fostre. With an English summary. Levin & Munksgaards, København 1927.
  • Om Kromosomernes Forhold i Menneskets somatiske Celler. Høst in Komm, København 1929.
  • About the somatic mitoses in humans and warm-blooded animals under normal and pathological conditions. Springer, Berlin 1930.
  • A Study of the Causes of Prostitution, especially concerning Hereditary Factors. , Sl 1932.
  • u. Jens Juul: About the influence of radium and X-rays, ultraviolet light and heat on cell division in warm-blooded animals. Tissue Culture Studies. , Berlin 1933.
  • The inheritance of sporadic goiter. Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore 1933.
  • The effect of pituitary growth hormone on hereditary dwarfism in the mouse. , Leipzig 1934.
  • and Harald Julius Christian Okkels: Laerebog i endokrinologi for studerende og laeger. Levin & Munksgaard, København 1934.
    • Translation: Textbook of Endocrinology. For students and doctors. Barth, Leipzig 1936.
  • Vejledning i Variation Statistics for Medicinere. , Copenhagen 1935.
  • Prostitution. An investigation of its causes, especially with regard to hereditary factors. Levin & Munksgaard, Copenhagen 1936.
  • and Lore Marx: Influence of hereditary pituitary dwarfism in mice by various pituitary extracts and thyroxine. I. Growth and Sexual Function: II. Endocrine Organs: from the University Institute for General Pathology, Kph. , Kbh. 1937.
  • Antropologiske and arvehygiejniske Forhold. In: Danmarks kultur ved aar 1940. 1 (1941) 1941, pp. 111-128.
  • Statistics met or i medicin and biologi. En kortfetzt vejledning. , Kbh. 1942.
  • Arvehygiejne i Teori og Praksis. In: Socialt tidsskrift. 19 (1943) 1943, pp. 295-305.
  • Arvelighedslaere for students and camps. Munksgaard, København 1943.
  • Danish Experiences in Negative Eugenics, 1929-1945. In: Eugenics Review 38 (1947), pp. 181-186. PMC 2986383 (free full text)
  • Arvehygiejne. Genetic hygiene, with an English summary. Bianco Lunos, København 1951.
  • and Elisabeth Aagesen: Genetics and disease. Munksgaard, Copenhagen 1951.
  • Statistics for medicinere. En kortfetzt vejledning. , Copenhagen 1955.
  • Arv og kår; human genetics. Munksgaard, [København] 1956.
  • with Mogens Hauge and Bent Harvald: Proceedings of the First International Congress of Human Genetics. Copenhagen, August 1-6, 1956. Karger, Basel 1956-1957.
  • Genetic-Hygienic Experiences in Denmark in Recent years. In: Eugen Review 49 (1957): 11-18. PMC 2973766 (free full text)
  • with Bent Harvald and Mogens Hauge: Arvepatologi. Handbook for medicinske students and longer. Munksgaard, Copenhagen 1962.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Bent Sigurd Hansen: Something Rotten in the State of Denmark. Eugenics and the Ascent of the Welfare State . In: Gunnar Broberg, Nils Roll-Hansen (Ed.): Eugenics and the Welfare State. Sterilization Policy in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. 2nd ed., MSU, East Lansing 2005, p. 58 f.
  2. ↑ Between 1929 and 1967 around 11,000 people were sterilized in Denmark, most of them women. Forced sterilizations performed by force are not documented. Lene Koch: How Eugenic was Eugenics? Reproductive Politics in the Past and the Present. In: Regina Wecker et al. (Ed.): How National Socialist is Eugenics? International debates on the history of eugenics in the 20th century. Böhlau, Vienna 2009, p. 47f. For the figures see Robert Jütte: Contraception. A history . Polity Press, Cambridge 2008, p. 178.
  3. ↑ Lene Koch: How Eugenic was Eugenics? Reproductive Politics in the Past and the Present. In: Regina Wecker (Ed.): How National Socialist is Eugenics? International debates on the history of eugenics in the 20th century. Böhlau, Vienna 2009, p. 43.
  4. ^ Nils Roll Hansen: Norwegian Eugenics: Sterilization as Social Reform . In: Gunnar Broberg, Nils Roll-Hansen (Ed.): Eugenics and the Welfare State. Sterilization Policy in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland . 2nd ed., MSU, East Lansing 2005, pp. 182f.


personal data
SURNAME Kemp, days
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish geneticist and eugenicist
DATE OF BIRTH August 28, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Brønderslev
DATE OF DEATH January 7, 1964
Place of death Copenhagen