When I was in high school (early 2000's) I was seeing a physiotherapist in the Pacific NW region.

One day, he claimed that he had been approached by TSCC for a genetic "sample." My physiotherapist had done his genealogy extensively and I suppose came from a good, healthy line.

I dismissed this at the time (I wasn't yet a convert) and subsequently until I left. Since leaving, however, I've wondered.

Another poster mentioned that he had heard Elder Nelson praise eugenics and this got me thinking. Has anybody else heard anything like this?

Of course. Haven't you heard of the secret mormon project to produce white and delightsome clones, whose lifespans will nearly double that of your standard conceived-through-dirty-sex human? They're doing it to make a new line of GAs, one that will live a VERY long time, and hence not need replacement as often. After all, it's so hard to spend all that time brainwashing people enough, and paying them so much, to be toe-the-line GAs, only to have them die.

Oh, and besides trying to perfect longevity, they also had to reduce the IQ of their clones to about 80. Enough to be able to speak and sound reasonably intelligent, but far less prone to ask themselves pertinent and honest questions.

I kid, of course. Or do I? ;-)

The Huntsman Cancer Institute ads give me the heebie-jeebies when they mention their enormous body of genetic research and flash a picture of a census list like you would see on Ancestry.com. What is this genealogy all about? Getting our old folks sealed to us? Really?

Yes, I know HCI has isolated the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, but I am glad as heck that they were denied patents on those.

Found this article and thought it was interesting, especially the excerpt below:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/31/us/by-accident-utah-is-proving-an-ideal-genetic-laboratory.html



In the 1970's, researchers at the University of Utah began melding church records with every measure of public health and mortality they could find, creating a vast database -- now containing 1.6 million people -- that scientists can use to cross-index family trees with cancer clusters and disease patterns and death rates.

In the 1980's, an in-depth study of the genetic makeup of 50 big Mormon families was begun. Those families, containing more than 650 people, have since been revisited again and again for study. Their identities are closely held secrets, say scientists at the university's department of human genetics, but the raw data of the group's cellular structure has been shared all over the world.

''We know probably more about the definitions of the DNA segments in those individuals than in any others, anywhere,'' said Dr. Jean Weissenbach, the director of the French National Sequencing Center, which used samples from the Utah families in its work on the multinational effort to define and delineate DNA, called the Human Genome Project, which was completed last year

Interesting article. Our family tree has some unique hereditary conditions and family members were asked to participate in genetic studies at the University of Utah.