Genetics of Social Psychology

user-pic
Vote 0 Votes

DNA_thumb.jpgImagine you are expecting a child, and genetics could tell you if your child has a gene for criminality or a gene for novelty-seeking. Would you want to know? Now genetics today cannot tell us if a certain person has a gene for a certain trait, but it does bring up ethical issues. Genetics can be used in powerful ways, from detecting if a child has a disorder to determining paternity. However, if genetics could tell us what behavioral and personality traits we possess there are some implications. Access to this personal information would be important, also how employers, insurance companies, and even universities would react to this information. This type of genetics would lead to many ethical issues of discrimination and abuse of knowledge. Society has access to personal aspects of our lives, but would this type of genetics cross the line? I believe if genetics could ever tell us if we or our children have a gene for criminality or any other trait that information should be kept private between yourself and the doctor. Our genes already shed light on personal information, but I would not care nor want to know about these types of genes. What do you think?

No TrackBacks

TrackBack URL: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/186651

4 Comments

| Leave a comment

I agree our own genes should be only used by the doctor and yourself in determining your future goals and aspirations. But your wife/husband should be allowed to get that information if a child was wanted to begotten. This I believe because s/he should know if their child will have a chance in recieving any genetic disorders from either of the parents. This is important so the couple can decide if they want to have a child of their own or adopt. If they were to take the chance of having a child with a genetic disorder than they could prepare for the future their future so that kid lives the best quality life as possible.

First off were not quite to that level of expertise. Still many psychologist believe and some have proven that there are environmental issues that make a gene more relevant or not. If some how we were able to learn this information from genes alone, I agree as well that information should be kept between patient or doctor. Maybe that information should never even be found because the parents will treat their kid differently. I say limit to knowing the gender and if they have any sever disorders. Anything past that seems unnecessary let the kids grow up and develop into their own person.

We just talked about this a few weeks ago in my bio class! I personally believe that exposing information from our DNA to anyone besides the possessor or the FBI (under extreme security) is unethical. If traits in our DNA were available for an employer to see, for example, one may be denied a job based off a "potentially bad trait." Also, if these genes are detectable within the fetus, more issues may arise because some parents may want to abort if their child has a disorder. I am personally pro-choice, but ending your unborn child's life because they are "different" is terrible! However this practice is inescapable sine our society today does use DNA to keep a database of criminals, so this technology will continue to advance and more than likely expand.

I agree, it would be a total breech of a person's personal and private rights. I'm sure it will come to this some day, especially with how much we are advancing, but this is one thing that might not be good; especially if made public. I probably don't know enough about genetics, but do these traits come out no matter what? Because I feel like our environment has a lot to do with it also. Also, people have to have some self control you would think. But good entry!

Leave a comment

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by moham564 published on April 22, 2012 5:52 PM.

Will Discrimination Ever End? was the previous entry in this blog.

Applying the Big Five to "Hannibal the Cannibal" is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.