NO SAINTS IN L.A.

Dr. Robert Graham wanted to clean the gene pool. What better way than to enlist attractive and athletic Nobel Prize winning scientists, mathematicians and physicists to impregnate millions of women? Insemination was a newfangled idea. The church denounced it, the public didn’t want to talk about it, but women came from everywhere. Although restricted to women who were married, the California sperm banks’ existence resulted in 215 healthy babies, each one expected to change the world. But the science experiment failed. Within a few years, Dr. Graham’s sperm bank closed and with it, the records of every child born with its help. David Plotz found out why.

What I found most interesting was that, in the end, the genius DNA didn’t matter as much as Dr. Graham had hoped. No Nobel Prize babies were born. Brilliant kids maybe, but once children found out they were spawned from successful men, it was more a burden than an advantage. So much pressure to be successful themselves often resulted in lackadaisal attitudes and lives, spurning their purported genius DNA. It was relationships that meant the most and the the parents attention to each child that shaped their personalities, ambitions, successes and talents. It just goes to show that everyday Einsteins cannot be made; if we all just paid a little more attention to each other we could all turn out better adjusted and perhaps a bit brighter.

Tags: Book Review, David Plotz, Dr. Robert Graham, Eugenics