Focus facts on community living, 05/2009

              CENTER FOR LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP
OKLAHOMA’S FEDERALLY DESIGNATED
UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE IN DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES (UCEDD)
May 2009 – Special Edition
DEADLY MEDICINE: Creating the Master Race
From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany carried out a campaign to “cleanse” German society of individuals
viewed as biological threats to the nation’s “health.” Enlisting the help of physicians and medically trained
geneticists, psychiatrists, and anthropologists, the Nazis developed racial health policies that began with
the mass sterilization of “genetically diseased” persons and ended with the near annihilation of European
Jewry.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s traveling exhibition, DEADLY MEDICINE: Creating the
Master Race, features original artifacts, photographs, documents and historic film footage from European
and American collections and presents them in settings evoking medical and scientific environments to
educate visitors about this important history. In addition, the exhibit provokes reflection on the continuing
attraction of biological utopias that promote the possibility of human perfection. From the early twentieth-century
international eugenics movements to present-day dreams of eliminating inherited disabilities
through genetic manipulation, the issues remain timely.
Oklahoma City is one of three international cities hosting DEADLY MEDICINE: Creating the Master Race
this year. The exhibit will be on display through July 5, 2009 at Science Museum Oklahoma (formerly the
Omniplex), 2100 NE 52nd Street, Oklahoma City, OK. Call the Science Museum Oklahoma at 405-602-
6664, for information about its hours of operation, the exhibit and tickets. More information about the trav-eling
exhibit can be found by visiting www.ushmm.org/deadlymedicine.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City and its underwriters, the University of Oklahoma Health
Sciences Center, the Center for Learning and Leadership/UCEDD, the Oklahoma Disability Law Center,
Oklahoma LEND, and the Oklahoma Developmental Disabilities Council are sponsoring a series of special
events and lectures of interest to the disability community. A list of scheduled events is provided below.
For more information about the events, contact the Center for Learning and Leadership at 405-271-4500.
Wednesday, May 20, 12:15 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Speaker: Sheryl White-Scott, M.D., nationally recognized expert on delivering health services to women
and minorities with developmental disabilities. Medicine Grand Rounds Lecture, Basic Sciences Education
Building (BSEB) East Lecture Hall, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Campus, Oklahoma
City, OK. Open to the public.
Thursday, May 21, 12:00 noon – 1:00 p.m.
Speaker: Dr. Piers J. Hale, Assistant Professor, History of Modern Science, University
of Oklahoma. Topic: American Eugenics Movement. Basic Sciences Education Building (BSEB), Room
320, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Campus, Oklahoma City, OK. Open to the public.