Wrestling with Behavioral Genetics

Science, Ethics, and Public Conversation
Erscheinungsjahr 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8018-9091-8
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 376 Seiten, Format (B × H): 148 mm x 220 mm, Gewicht: 495 g

Reihe: Bioethics

Hardly a month goes by without a media report proclaiming that researchers have discovered the gene for some complex human behavior or trait—intelligence, dyslexia, shyness, homosexuality. The practical implications of genetic research can bring great good—relieving parents of self-blame for a child's schizophrenia or autism and possibly treating genetic diseases in the future. Other findings—or pernicious interpretations of them—can cause great harm, for example, by establishing flawed connections between genetics, race, and educational attainment.

Wrestling with Behavioral Genetics brings together an interdisciplinary group of contributors—human geneticists, humanists, social scientists, lawyers, and journalists—to discuss the ethical and social implications of behavioral genetics research. The essays give readers the necessary tools to critically analyze the findings of behavioral geneticists, explore competing interpretations of the ethical and social implications of those findings, and engage in a productive public conversation about them.

This volume provides an accessible introduction to a fascinating and controversial science and the societal and individual implications of its continuing development.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Parens, Erik

Chapman, Audrey R

Press, Nancy

Fachgebiete

• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Medizinische Ethik
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Vorklinische Medizin: Grundlagenfächer Humangenetik
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Psychologie / Allgemeines & Theorie Psychologische Theorie, Psychoanalyse Behaviourismus

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Contributors
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Basic Scientific Concepts and Debates
Chapter 1. Behavior: Its Nature and Nurture, Part 1
Chapter 2. Behavior: Its Nature and Nurture, Part 2
Chapter 3. Whither Human Behavioral Genetics?
Chapter 4. Mobiles: A Gloomy View of Research into Complex Human Traits
Chapter 5. Using Genetics to Understand Human Behavior: Promises and Risks
Part II: Basic Ethical and Social Concepts and Problems
Chapter 6. Social Construction and Medicalization: Behavioral Genetics in Context
Chapter 7. Behavioral Genetics and Explanations of the Link Between Crime, Violence, and Race
Chapter 8. Impulsivity, Responsibility, and Criminal Law
Chapter 9. Behavioral Genetics and Equality
Chapter 10. Behavioral Genetics and Moral Responsibility
Chapter 11. Behavioral Genetics and Moral Responsibility
Part III: Promoting Public Conversation about Behavioral Genetics
Chapter 12. Creating Public Conversation about Behavioral Genetics
Chapter 13. Laypeople and Behavioral Genetics
Chapter 14. Behavioral Genetics and the Media
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Press, Nancy
Nancy Press is a professor at the School of Nursing and the Department of Public Health at the School of Medicine, Oregon Health and Science University.

Chapman, Audrey R
Audrey R. Chapman is a professor of community medicine and Healey Chair in Medical Humanities and Bioethics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.

Parens, Erik
Erik Parens is a senior research scholar at The Hastings Center, a visiting professor in the Science, Technology, and Society Program at Sarah Lawrence College, and the coeditor of Wrestling with Behavioral Genetics: Science, Ethics, and Public Conversation (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2005). He is also editor of Enhancing Human Traits: Ethical and Social Implications (Georgetown Univ. Press, 1998) and Prenatal Testing and Disability Rights (Georgetown Univ.Press, 2000).

Erik Parens is a senior research scholar at the Hastings Center and a visiting professor in the Science, Technology, and Society Program at Sarah Lawrence College. Audrey R. Chapman is a professor of community medicine and Healey Chair in Medical Humanities and Bioethics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. Nancy Press is a professor at the School of Nursing and the Department of Public Health at the School of Medicine, Oregon Health and Science University.