Behavioral Genetics The Clash of Culture and Biology

About this book

Scientists conducting human genome research are identifying genetic disorders and traits at an accelerating rate. Genetic factors in human behaviour appear particularly complex and slow to emerge, yet are raising their own set of difficult ethical, legal and social issues. In this work, Ronald Carson and Mark Rothstein bring together experts from the fields of genetics, ethics, neuroscience, psychiatry, sociology and law to address the cultural, legal and biological underpinnings of behavioral genetics. The authors discuss a broad range of topics, including the ethical questions arising from gene therapy and screening, molecular research in psychiatry and the legal ramifications and social consequences of behavioural genetic information. Throughout, they focus on two basic concerns: the quality of the science behind behavioural genetic claims and the need to formulate an appropriate, ethically defensible response when the science turns out to be good.

Contents

Contents and Contributors: Foreword, Floyd E. Bloom * Preface, Ronald A. Carson and Mark A. Rothstein * Amazing Grace: Sources of Phenotype Variation in Genetic Boosterism, Allan J. Tobin * In the Mainstream: Research in Behavioral Genetics, David C. Rowe and Kristen C. Jacobson * Identifying the Molecular Genetic Basis of Behavioral Traits, Stephanie L. Sherman and Irwin D. Waldman * Complexity and Research Strategies in Behavioral Genetics, Kenneth F. Schaffner * Behavioral Genetic Determinism: Its Effect on Culture and Law, Mark A. Rothstein * Predicting and Punishing Antisocial Acts: How the Criminal Justice System Might Use Behavioral Genetics, Lori B. Andrews * Behavioral Genetics and Dismantling the Welfare State, Dorothy Nelkin * The Social Consequences of Genetic Disclosure, Troy Duster * The Fate of the Responsible Self in a Genetic Age, Ronald A. Carson

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Biography

Ronald A. Carson is the Harris L. Kempner Distinguished Professor in the Humanities in Medicine and director of the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Mark A. Rothstein is the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of Law and director of the Health Law and Policy Institute at the University of Houston Law Center.