Robert Klark Graham
| Robert Klark Graham | |
|---|---|
| Born |
June 9, 1906 Harbor Springs, Michigan |
| Died |
February 13, 1997 (aged 90) Seattle, Washington |
| Occupation | Inventor, businessman, eugenicist, author |
| Spouse(s) | Marta Ve Everton |
Robert Klark Graham (June 9, 1906 – February 13, 1997) was an American eugenicist and businessman who made millions by developing shatter-proof plastic eyeglass lenses, and who later founded the Repository for Germinal Choice, a sperm bank for geniuses, in the hope of implementing a eugenics program.
Graham created his "Nobel sperm bank" in 1980. Initially, his intent was to obtain sperm only from Nobel laureates, but the scarcity of donors and the low viability of their sperm (because of age) forced Graham to develop a looser set of criteria.
These criteria were numerous and exacting: for example, sperm recipients were required to be married, and male donors were required to have extremely high IQs, though the bank later softened this policy so it could recruit athletes for donors as well as scholars.
By 1983, Graham's sperm bank was reputed to have 19 repeat genius donors, including William Bradford Shockley (1956 Nobel Prize in Physics and proponent of eugenics[1]) and two anonymous Nobel Prize winners in science.
The bank closed in 1999, two years after the death of its creator. 218 children had been born under its auspices.
Graham's overriding goal was the genetic betterment of human population as well as solid nurture of newly conceived geniuses. This was a form of "positive" eugenics, meant to increase the number of designated "fit" individuals in a population through selective breeding. However, eugenics has been in disrepute in modern times, and Graham's "genius sperm bank" was highly controversial.
Further reading
- "The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank" by David Plotz, Random House, 2005. ISBN 1400061245.
- "Darwin's Engineer", by David Plotz, Los Angeles Times Magazine, June 5, 2005 (A biography of Graham)
- "Free To Choose? Insemination, Immigration, And Eugenics" by Steve Sailer, VDARE, 5 July 2005
References
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