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米ノーベル賞科学者が人種差別発言、所属研究所から職務停止処分
2007年10月20日 09:07 発信地:ニューヨーク/米国
（写真省略）
ロンドン（London）の科学博物館で、記者会見に先立ちDNAモデルを見つめるジェームズ・ワトソン（James D. Watson）博士（2005年5月20日撮影）。(c)AFP/ODD ANDERSEN
【10月20日 AFP】DNAの二重らせん構造の発見が認められ1962年にノーベル医学生理学賞を受賞した米科学者ジェームズ・ワトソン（James D. Watson）博士は19日、英紙とのインタビューで人種差別的な発言を行い騒動を巻き起こしたことを受け、予定されていた英国での新著発売記念ツアーを中止し帰国した。また、博士が所属する研究所は、博士の職務停止を決定した。
同博士は滞在していたロンドン（London）で、英サンデー・タイムズ（Sunday Times）紙とのインタビューを行ったが、そこでの人種差別的発言が騒動を巻き起こしたため、ツアーを中止し、帰国した。ワトソン博士の新著出版元が明らかにした。当初、25日まで滞在し、いくつかのイベントに参加する予定となっていた。
ワトソン博士は、同紙とのインタビューで「アフリカの先行きは暗い」と述べ、その理由を「すべての社会政策は、われわれの知性が等しいとの事実を基礎としている。しかし、さまざまな研究結果はそれを必ずしも肯定していない」と発言した。
ワトソン博士が務めるコールドスプリングハーバー研究所（Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory）の評議委員会は18日に声明で、「14日のサンデー・タイムズ紙に掲載されたワトソン博士の発言に異議を唱える」とし、同博士の職務停止処分を決定した。博士は同研究所でナンバー2の地位にあった。
■過去にも差別的問題発言
英国オープン大学（Open University）のSteven Rose神経生物学教授は英国放送協会（BBC）に対し、「ワトソン博士の軽率な行動および人種主義的、性差別主義的、同性愛差別的な強い攻撃的発言は悪評高い」と指摘する。
伝えられるところによると、ワトソン博士は、同性愛者の遺伝子を持つ子どもを妊娠している事実が検査の結果で判明可能となれば、女性には堕胎する権利が発生するべきだと述べ、物議を醸したこともあるという。また、遺伝子を修正して人々、特に女性をより美しくできる日が来るとも主張しているという。(c)AFP
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http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5guAH0TdI9vnd22gW83PAKEfaHtUA
Top US scientist suspended by lab for "racist" remarks（AFP）
21 hours ago
NEW YORK (AFP) — A US Nobel Prize-winning scientist who triggered a storm with reportedly racist comments canceled his British book tour Friday to return home, where his lab has suspended him from duty.
"The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Board of Trustees decided to suspend the administrative responsibilities of Chancellor James D. Watson, PhD, pending further deliberation by the board," the lab said in a statement.
Watson, who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1962 for his part in discovering the structure of DNA, had been in London for a book tour when an interview he gave to the Sunday Times sparked a furore.
He had been the number two at the Long Island laboratory, just outside New York. But the lab said Watson was suspended "after the board's public statement yesterday disagreeing with the comments attributed to Dr Watson in the October 14, 2007 edition of The Sunday Times."
Watson told the British weekly he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours -- whereas all the testing says not really."
Lab president Bruce Stillman said the board of trustees "vehemently disagree with these statements and are bewildered and saddened if he indeed made such comments."
Such remarks were Watson's "own personal statements and in no way reflect the mission, goals, or principles of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's Board, administration or faculty," he said in a separate statement.
"Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory does not engage in any research that could even form the basis of the statements attributed to Dr. Watson."
Earlier Friday, Watson said in a statement that he was "mortified about what has happened."
"More importantly, I cannot understand how I could have said what I am quoted as having said. I can certainly understand why people, reading those words, have reacted in the ways they have.
"To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologize unreservedly. That is not what I meant. More importantly from my point of view, there is no scientific basis for such a belief."
His publicist revealed that Watson, who arrived in London this week and had been due to take part in several events until October 25, had pulled out of the British book tour Friday and gone home.
Kate Farquhar-Thomson, head of publicity in the academic division of publishers Oxford University Press, said Watson left because he "felt that he needed to go back to the States" for discussions with his laboratory.
Watson, the 79-year-old chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York state, had been due to give a series of lectures promoting his new book "Avoid Boring People: Lessons From A Life In Science."
But the Science Museum in London on Thursday canceled his scheduled Friday talk, saying Watson's comments had "gone beyond the point of acceptable debate."
And the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), a leading US scientific organization, said it was "outraged" by the remarks attributed to Watson, describing them as "racist" and "vicious."
Professor Steven Rose, a neurobiologist from the Open University, told the BBC that Watson was "notorious over a long history of his life in shooting from the hip and making remarks which are racist, sexist, homophobic, profoundly offensive."
Watson reportedly whipped up a storm when he said women should have the right to abort their babies if tests could determine that their child carried homosexual genes.
And the scientist considered "the grandfather of DNA" has also argued that one day it might be possible to modify the genetic code to make people more beautiful -- especially women.
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