France: Fondation Jerome Lejeune celebrates “20 years of scientific and ethical challenges”
The Fondation Jerome Lejeune is celebrating its “20 years of scientific and ethical challenges” since it was founded in April 1995, after the death of Professor Jerome Lejeune on April 3, 1994. The final commemorative event of the year is the exhibit “Jerome Lejeune, a discovery for life,” which is held at the city hall in the 6th arrondissement, Place Sulpice, in Paris from May 13th to the 23rd 2015.
The exhibit retraces the adventures of Jerome Lejeune, a pediatrician and geneticist of international renown who discovered the cause of Down syndrome. In 1952 he entered Hospital Trousseau as part of Prof. Raymond Turpin’s team. There he was allocated all cases of Down syndrome so that he could focus his research on its causes. It was in 1958, as he was examining the karyotype of a young boy that he discovered the cause of Down syndrome: an extra chromosome on the 21st chromosomal pair. Prof. Turpin invited Jerome Lejeune to be the first author of the scientific paper. In 1964, he was appointed to the first Chair of Human Genetics at the Paris School of Medicine.
He was granted the William Allan Award by the American Society of Human Genetic (ASHG), and went to San Francisco in September 1969. He noted that scientific discussion of screening techniques developed following his discovery tended to focus on proceeding to selective abortions. He saw the emergence of a “chromosomal racism” that runs counter to the Hippocratic oath: primum non nocere, first do no harm. The 30th of September 1969, the day of the awards, Jerome Lejeune made a speech in the course of which he affirmed that the embryo, like the fetus, is human, and denounced abortion (then illegal) as murder. “He publicly denounced science’s threats against life and the drift towards the culture of death,” his wife wrote. “His speech raised an outcry but his courage and coherence forced the admiration of all.”
The exhibit is open until May 23rd, 2015. City hall, 6th arrondissement – 78 rue Bonaparte, Salon Francois Collet (Metro St. Sulpice, Line 4). From Monday to Friday, 10:30 am to 5 pm, Thursday to 7 pm, Saturday 10 am to noon. Free entry.
(Sources: Fondation Lejeune – Amis Lejeune – DICI no. 315, dated May, 15 2015)
