A + B = AB, BUT IN WHAT PROPORTION?

Nature plus nurture equals destiny (ROBERT S. BOYD, May. 07, 2003, Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Now that the human genome - the sum of all our genes - has been decoded, does it appear that a person's destiny is fixed for all time in the letters of his or her DNA?

Can a child's future be read out like a bar code on a box of cereal? Was he doomed from conception to be violent, an alcoholic, a star athlete? Will she be shy, depressed, superintelligent? Has the genetic revolution left any room for free will and individual responsibility?

A battery of geneticists, psychologists, philosophers and legal experts debated these deeply controversial questions at a recent conference on behavioral genetics, the study of genes and human behavior.

The consensus was clear: Genes strongly influence behavior but do not control it. Neither does a person's environment - family, upbringing, life experiences - completely determine who he or she will turn out to be.

"Genes make certain behaviors more likely, but genes don't automatically lead to actions," said Gregory Kaebnick, co-director of a National Institutes of Health-sponsored project on genetic ties and the future of the family. "We can still believe in free will."

"Genes set the stage, but our brains - not our genes - ultimately control our behavior," said Stephen Hyman, former director of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md.

Few but genuine extremists would argue that it is either entirely our genes or our souls that govern our behavior, so such concessions are easy enough. The real question is where do we draw the line as regards which controls how much. If it turns out that genes are as strong a force as evolutionists argue, then it will be a matter of fundamental fairness to not even hold people as culpable as we currently do--never mind as culpable as we used to--for their selfish actions. If instead we choose to hold folk morally responsible for the decisions they make it will require, at some level, our disbelief in the power of the gene. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 9, 2003 10:23 AM