Introduction -- Part I: Workshops on the History of Human Genetics -- The International Workshops on Genetics, Medicine and History: An Overview, 2003-2015 -- Part II: Beginning of Human Genetics -- Ancestral Concepts of Human Genetics and Molecular Medicine in Epicurean Philosophy -- Bateson and the Doctors: The Introduction of Mendelian Genetics to the British Medical Community 1900-1910 -- Part III: Genetics and Medicine -- Pedigrees and Prejudices: Pre-WWII Inherited Disease Classification at the US Eugenics Record Office -- Aldred Scott Warthin's Family 'G': The American Plot Against Cancer and Heredity (1895-1940) -- Genetic Discrimination in the Doctoring of Cancer and Alcoholism -- The Genomization of Biology: Counterbalancing Radical Reductionism -- A Brief History of Uncertainty in Medical Genetics and Genomics -- Part IV: Countries -- "Nature's Laboratories of Human Genetics": Alpine Isolates, Hereditary Diseases and Medical Genetic Fieldwork, 1920-1970 -- Some Thoughts on Genetics and Politics. The Historical Misrepresentation of Scandinavian Eugenics and Sterilization -- Changing the Point of View: The History of Human Genetics as an Applied Science in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1945-1975 -- Herbert Bach (1926-1996): One of the Pioneers of Human Genetics in East Germany (GDR) -- Concise History of Prenatal Diagnostic Service in Russia -- Foundation of the International Federation of Human Genetic Societies: The Catalyst -- Part V: Gene Mapping -- The First Human Genetic Map 1936 -- Glasgow Contributions to Human Gene Mapping -- Human Gene Mapping: The Mass Media Iconography of the Human Genome Project in the Most Popular Greek Newspapers -- Part VI: Narrated History -- National Human Genome Research Institute History of Genomics Oral History Program: An Example of "Triangulation" -- Narrating Genes: How Patients with Chronic Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Interpret an Emerging Disease Aetiology and How We Can Make Sense Out of It by Developing a Historically and Sociologically Informed Framework -- Part VII: Genetic Counselling -- The Establishment of Genetic Counselling in Sweden: 1940-1980 -- Counselling, Risk and Prevention in Human Genetic Early Diagnosis in the Federal Republic of Germany -- "The Happiness of the Individual Is of Primary Importance":Genetic Counselling in the GDR -- Remarks on the History of Genetic Counselling in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1990 -- The Establishment of Human Genetic Counselling in Austria in the 1970s in Between the Establishment of Human Genetics and the Eugenic Indication of Abortion -- Genetic Counselling in Belgium: The Centre for Human Genetics at the University of Leuven, 1960-1990 -- Genetic Counselling for Mediterranean Anaemia in Post-war Greece -- Karyotyping and the Emergence of Genetic Counselling in Mexico in the 1960s -- Newborn Screening on the Cusp of Genetic Screening: From Solidarity in Public Health to Personal Counselling -- Feminist Criticism of Genetic Counselling in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century -- The Evolving Concept of Non-directiveness in Genetic Counselling -- A Comparative and Social History of Genetic Counselling?.

Written by 30 authors from all over the world, this book provides a unique overview of exciting discoveries and surprising developments in human genetics over the last 50 years. The individual contributions, based on seven international workshops on the history of human genetics, cover a diverse range of topics, including the early years of the discipline, gene mapping and diagnostics. Further, they discuss the status quo of human genetics in different countries and highlight the value of genetic counseling as an important subfield of medical genetics.