Subscribe
Previous Post
“It’s genetic.”
Chances are, you’ve used this as an excuse sometime or other to explain why you’ve chosen to do something a certain way. Shopaholic? It’s in my genes. Jerk? It’s in his genes. Slacker? It’s genetic. Soccer fanatic? Born with the gene. Couch potato? My dad gave me the genes.
On the one hand, it shows that genetics is very much on people’s minds nowadays. On the other hand, it is a fundamental misunderstanding of genetics and inheritance. Just because a trait is influenced by genes doesn’t mean you have no control over it. Genes do not act alone. Gene activity is moulded by behavior and vice versa. You have a choice to alter how you and your body cope with your genes.
Of course there are limitations imposed by your genes. Some of us will never be taller than 5 feet and others (like Jennifer Lopez) will always be pear-shaped no matter how fit we are. At some point, though, genetic technology will make it possible to fiddle around with our genes. When that happens, will we still have the excuse that we can’t help ourselves because of our genes?
Welcome Tangled Bank visitors! Genetics and Health is celebrating its one year anniversary with a contest. Just leave me a comment this week and you’ll be eligible to win a $10 Amazon gift certificate!
1716 days ago
[...] answer: Check out the heated discussion we had in [...]
1863 days ago
[...] Christina, what kind of genes do you think have? Actually, never mind. I don’t want you to be using your genes as an excuse. Just quit already!! And that goes for you too, Mr. Homely Scientist [...]
1947 days ago
[...] April 2006 – Let’s Talk Genetics, Health, and the Supernatural (A rebuttal to one of the most hotly discussed posts ever on Genetics and Health.) [...]
2076 days ago
[...] On the other hand, Emma Whitelaw from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research isn’t going to be my friend. She won’t let me use genes as an excuse. [...]
2080 days ago
[...] If a bus runs me over tomorrow, my genes had nothing to do it. Today’s most e-mailed New York Times article: [...]
2119 days ago
[...] Short answer: No. Long answer: Check out the heated discussion we had in April. [...]
2128 days ago
[...] Julian Ryall in The Scotsman makes all this much more entertaining by relating genetics to people’s insatiable desire for the latest new gadget. Smells like another excuse to me. [...]
2133 days ago
[...] Using genes as an excuse [...]
2144 days ago
[...] Very thought provoking. Perhaps genes do make good excuses sometimes. [...]
2194 days ago
[...] Using genes as an excuse won’t fly with me. [...]
2202 days ago
[...] While this is good news for the process of understanding the human genetic code (or genome), this raises troubling questions. Like our channel editor discussed in her post, can genetics be used as an excuse? If you were tested for this gene and it was determined to be "damaged" could you be tracked into something for people with "lesser intelligence"? Speaking as someone with a learning disability, and who has worked extremely hard to manage it, I faced being tracked into classes that wouldn’t have me on the honours university track. It took my parents’ intervention at school to get me into honours classes. [...]
Here, here Mark! Great response. Even for us Buddhists.
Created a pine tree … and consider the humble snow flake. Truly amazing.
You’re very welcome Hsien…
I have to smile – believe it or not – despite, or in spite of, what they believe, even a heathen has a higher power. Naturally…
“Have you ever peered out the window and pondered whether you could have created that pine tree?”
Ah well, I’ve enjoyed this thread. Thank you for the compliment also!
Mark
Mark: Thank you so much for your comment! It is this kind of straightforward, no nonsense thinking that I admire about A Dozen Steps. As you can tell, there are quite a few heathens around here. ;)
I’ve also arrived late to this one -
Sort of reminds me of that moment in one of my first few meetings at AA when I attempted to put the blame on my father for making me drink. I can definitely relate to “It’s in my genes” being just one more excuse for bad behavior.
I was reminded very clearly by an oldtimer that my father never once poured any of that booze down my throat for me!
“What in the natural world can influence human behavior other than genes and environment?”
Simple – God.
Unless, that is, you’re like the multitude in the world of PC that thinks discussion of God is unnatural.
:-)
A Sober, Clean Day To All,
Mark
Tris: Thanks for reining us in. I’d sort of lost the plot there for a sec.
2205 days ago
[...] While we do not know exactly what causes autism, there are many theories, from mercury in vaccines to environmental toxins to the discounted “refrigerator mother” theory to genetics. A recent post by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei at Genetics and Health on Using Genes as an Excuse prompted me to think about why, in my circle, people have tended to be unwilling to simply say that “autism is genetic.” [...]
Coming late into this discussion here …
“What in the natural world can influence human behavior other than genes and environment?”
I think that’s the crux of it … we don’t completely understand the whole existense of things. But … culture, for example, isn’t “environment” per se (nature vs nurture) … and culture can certainly overule both genes and environment.
Also, as the discussion has tended here, there is nothing in science that discounts, eliminates, or disproves something greater than ourselves. Something that is beyond our complete comprehension.
Really though, this got away from Hsien’s original post.
Using either genes, culture, or environment as an excuse is just wrong. The system and interactions are so, so complex. How would an African pygmy change if raised with the Inuit of Northern Canada? His culture wouldn’t be there. His genes have been adapted for hot, jungle Africa …
Genes could make you more likely to be overwieght, but you might be able to counter it. It is a balance between all these factors that makes humans, and all life, exciting and interesting.
What in the natural world can influence human behavior other than genes and environment?
Yes, there is more to human behaviour than genes and the environment. That does not mean there is only, then, the supernatural that is left.