Eugenics and Individual Phenotypic Variation: To What Extent Is Biology a Predictive Science? (original) (raw)
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Criminal behaviour is but one behavioural tendency for which a genetic influence has been suggested. Whilst this research certainly raises difficult ethical questions and is subject to scientific criticism, one recent research project suggests that for some families, criminal tendency might be predicted by genetics. In this paper, supposing this research is valid, we consider whether intervening in the criminal tendency of future children is ethically justifiable. We argue that, if avoidance of harm is a paramount consideration, such an intervention is acceptable when genetic selection is employed instead of genetic enhancement. Moreover, other moral problems in avoiding having children with a tendency to criminal behaviour, such as the prospect of social discrimination, can also be overcome.
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Researchers agree that heritable effects influence almost all traits of interest for social science. A corollary of ubiquitous heritability is that measurement and control of genetic differences is essential for basic and applied social science. Despite this, remarkably few studies in the social sciences use genetically informative samples. Here we discuss how complex-trait behavior genetics can be used more effectively to address a range of social science questions, including multivariate genetic modeling, discordant twin designs, studies of gene-environment interaction, and adoption studies. We next advocate a concerted effort to build a new openly accessible resource to increase the utilization of genetically informative designs in social science research. Specific criteria for this proposed resource are defined and include full coverage of socioeconomic status, multiple and complementary family, environmental, and genetic relationships, an open and extensible method for low-cost testing, and an open-access data repository. We suggest the cost would be moderate and returns high, generating benefits for many hundreds of researchers, maximizing impact for funders, and increase the rate of scientific progress in social science.
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The rate at which new genetic technologies are becoming available to the public is far outpacing our ability as a society to respond meaningfully to the ethical and practical challenges these technologies pose. The benefits of genetic tests for various disease risks, for example, may seem obvious. Yet, some experts suggest that because of the complex interdependence between genetics, environment, and lifestyle these tests have little clinical relevance (Hirschler, 2007). Another concern is the prospect that this technology will facilitate the sort of creeping medicalization that has characterized the marketing of pharmaceuticals in recent years. How long before genomics companies claim to have identified genetic markers for traits that some may deem undesirable, such as shortness, intellectual mediocrity, and homosexuality? Such tests would facilitate a hi-tech, market-driven eugenics, and force on society a set of choices for which we may not be prepared. In order to frame an adequate response to this challenge, I believe, we must examine the logic implicit within the standard model of heredity and recognize its essential limitations.
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Genetica, 2022
In this paper, we explain the concept of heritability and describe the different methods and the genotype-phenotype correspondences used to estimate heritability in the specific field of human genetics. Heritability studies are conducted on extremely diverse human traits: quantitative traits (physical, biological, but also cognitive and behavioral measurements) and binary traits (as is the case of most human diseases). Instead of variables such as education and socioeconomic status as covariates in genetic studies, they are now the direct object of genetic analysis. We make a review of the different assumptions underlying heritability estimates and dispute the validity of most of them. Moreover, and maybe more importantly, we show that they are very often misinterpreted. These erroneous interpretations lead to a vision of a genetic determinism of human traits. This vision is currently being widely disseminated not only by the mass media and the mainstream press, but also by the scientific press. We caution against the dangerous implication it has both medically and socially. Contrarily to the field of animal and plant genetics for which the polygenic model and the concept of heritability revolutionized selection methods, we explain why it does not provide answer in human genetics.
A "free-market" approach to the genetic development of children may result in a homogenising. Parents may be inclined to choose according to models accepted by society. In this case, improving technologies will "will grant racism and homophobia an unprecedented efficacy." One concern about the obligation to produce the best child in a particular society is that social norms may be discriminatory, so that in the end, for example, most children will be boys, extremists and heterosexuals. The sequencing of the human genome can help us in human evolution, to understand diseases for direct appropriate treatment, identify mutations that cause disease, and correct them. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.23389.67044