Behavioral Genetics: The Clash of Culture and Biology PDF
Preview Behavioral Genetics: The Clash of Culture and Biology
Behavioral Genetics Behavioral Genetics The Clash of Culture and Biology Edited by Ronald A. Carson Harris L. Kempner Distinguished Professor in the Humanities in Medicine Director, Institute for the Medical Humanities University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston Galveston, Texas and Mark A. Rothstein Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of Law Director, Health Law and Policy Institute University of Houston Houston, Texas The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore and London © 1999 The Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 1999 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363 www.press.jhu.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data will be found at the end of this book. A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 0-8018-6069-5 Contents Foreword, by Floyd E. Bloom vii Preface and Acknowledgments ix List of Contributors xv 1. Amazing Grace: Sources of Phenotype Variation in Genetic Boosterism Allan J.Tobin 1 2. In the Mainstream: Research in Behavioral Genetics David C. Rowe and Kristen C. Jacobson 12 3. Identifying the Molecular Genetic Basis of Behavioral Traits Stephanie L. Sherman and Irwin D.Waldman 35 4. Complexity and Research Strategies in Behavioral Genetics Kenneth F. Schaffner 61 5. Behavioral Genetic Determinism: Its Effects on Culture and Law Mark A. Rothstein 89 6. Predicting and Punishing Antisocial Acts: How the Criminal Justice System Might Use Behavioral Genetics Lori B.Andrews 116 7. Behavioral Genetics and Dismantling the Welfare State Dorothy Nelkin 156 8. The Social Consequences of Genetic Disclosure Troy Duster 172 9. The Fate of the Responsible Self in a Genetic Age Ronald A. Carson 189 Index 201 Foreword As a medically trained neuroscientist, my lifelong approach to diseases of the brain and behavior has been to search deeper and deeper into the causal mechanisms and points of biological vulnerability. Medical scien- tists frequently employ vertical thinking, which in terms of the brain and its disorders is a much richer expression than the “reductionist” appellation fre- quently used to cast aspersions of simple-mindedness onto biologists who rarely bother with psychosocial causes of illness. By thinking vertically, I am not satisfied just with finding genes that may mark vulnerability or resistance to a disease. Rather, I want to understand how the products of that gene, ex- pressed selectively or ubiquitously, or somewhere in between, can influence neurons or glia; disregulate circuit formation or function; influence integrated functional systems; and change the way an individual interacts with, perceives, or anticipates the environment. Studies in which I have been a participant for more than fifteen years continue to strengthen the view that the brain relies on more genes to carry out its functions than any other organ in the body, and that more than half of the mammalian genome is of use to the brain. The Hu- man Genome Project has already identified more than 40,000 bits of brain genes and I am thrilled at the information we will have on neuronal pheno- types and their functional variations once those initial discoveries have been characterized as to sites and times of expression. In one of my longest-running fields of endeavor, namely, vulnerability to al- coholism, I have been impressed with the way family histories support the ten- dency for vulnerability to alcoholism to run in families, often with devastating influence, in a male-to-male transmission pattern. Being predisposed to accept the validity of that human pattern, I am further predisposed to accept the re- sults of studies on rats bred to express greater and greater desire to drink alco- hol and to show by their behavior that they will work to gain access to the al- cohol. The data derived from the studies of these alcohol-preferring rodents also show comparable responses to drugs that help reduce alcohol ingestion and reduce recidivism in humans. Invasive studies of the alcoholic rats have re- vealed certain consistent alterations in brain neurochemistry and cellular func- tion. However, there is still much to be learned before scientists will have a list of discrete gene expressions that will allow them to compare the alcohol-pre- viii Foreword ferring animals and the alcohol-ignoring animals, let alone understand which combinations of changes may be the cause of the apparent simulation of the human alcoholic’s condition. Does this indicate that psychosocial factors and social culture have no bear- ing on the quest for understanding? No, not at all. When alcohol-preferring rats are placed in an environment in which they previously worked to obtain their alcoholic beverage, they begin to show the same neurochemical changes they showed when they were actively working to obtain alcohol. If these ani- mals are never given a chance to drink, they clearly have no problems main- taining their simple existence and reproducing in laboratory settings. Do I think there is only one gene “responsible” for alcoholism, or any other complex behavioral disease of emotion, cognition, or social interaction? Cer- tainly not. I simply do not yet have a glimmer of the ways in which specific gene abnormalities of the sorts that are consistently observed in Huntington disease and that are occasionally observed in Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases can lead to the late-life devastations that characterize these untreatable pa- thologies. Those pathways need to be determined before we can have any prospects for understanding the still more variable biological bases by which some families show greatly increased incidences of other psychopathologies, and in which the consistent nonreproducibility of specific gene associations across such families suggests that there may be numerous routes to increased biological vulnerability. Clearly, at present we have an incomplete genetic inventory of the brain and hence of the consequences for brain assembly, homeostatic adaptation, ability and desire to learn, and whatever goes into resilience to internal and external stressors. Nevertheless, this ignorance is slowly being reduced, and the only clash I see is with those who would take the view that the rich biology of the brain is irrelevant to the causes of mental diseases, or to their cure or ultimate prevention. In my view, this strategy does not have the remotest chance of suc- cess. Yet as scholars, we are required to keep an open mind, to be willing to hear and assess a variety of data as well as concepts and hypotheses, and then, if suf- ficiently challenged, to find ways to test those hypotheses. As this book amply demonstrates, there are many contrasting views and much data to be gathered if contrasting views of the causes of behavioral disorders are to be unified. Floyd E. Bloom, M.D. Department of Neuropharmacology The Scripps Research Institute La Jolla, California Preface and Acknowledgments Modern science is a product of Western culture. Its practitioners and laypersons alike take for granted culture-specific conceptions of self and society, freedom, responsibility, and human flourishing. Current developments in genetics are prompting a reevaluation of those ideas and a reconsideration of what constitutes responsible use of new knowledge. The Human Genome Project is proceeding on schedule, with experts pre- dicting that the entire genome sequence will be completed no later than 2005. Much of the scientific attention has already shifted away from single-gene disor- ders, such as cystic fibrosis, to complex disorders, such as various cancers. Lurk- ing only slightly away from the glare of attention, however, like an uninvited guest sitting in a corner, are thorny issues surrounding behavioral genetics. Genetic diseases have understandably garnered most of the attention so far. The promise that pernicious and intractable human diseases could be identi- fied in advance and treated, or even prevented, has supplied the moral power to drive the engine of the Human Genome Project. However, important ethi- cal, legal, and social issues are being raised in determining how our health care system will respond to new genetic discoveries. The issues include access to technology, genetic counseling, reproductive freedom, informed consent, and the role of genetics in public health. The use of genetic information for non- medical purposes, such as insurance, employment, domestic relations, and fo- rensics, has spurred a reexamination of notions of privacy and confidentiality. Claims of genetic factors in behavior have been slower to develop. Indeed, genetic research on mental illness, for example, often has been characterized by false premises, unreplicated claims, and retracted papers. There are many rea- sons for this, including the difficulty of establishing diagnostic criteria, com- plex modes of inheritance, multiple gene interactions, difficulty in measuring end points, problems of methodology, and the uncertain effects of environ- ment. These research problems are intensified for nonpathological behavioral factors. Nevertheless, assertions of a genetic link to thrill seeking, aggression, nurturing, aging, the development of language and social skills in women, “handedness,” and food preferences all have been announced recently. Sexual orientation, alcoholism and other addictive behavior, and intelligence have surfaced to varying degrees as well. Our individual and collective responses to
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