Persona
The Times carried an editorial on human DNA mapping, occasioned by the announced sequencing of the genome of James Watson, co-discoverer of the double helix (read editorial here; read the Watson “news” piece here). The thrust of the editorial is that “individual genomic sequencing” gives us ” a clearer idea of who we are.”
Who are we? Only certain very limited aspects of a human’s persona are determined by genetics alone. Some physical characteristics certainly (but even here, an external variable–nutrition–may place a key role.). But what does genetics have to do with a person’s compassion, intelligence, curiosity, affability, etc. Surely Shakespeare has more to teach us about these aspects of being human than James Watson ever can.
The sequencing of one’s own DNA sequence can only be of interest to the very wealthy and very narcissistic among us. And they have to believe in the erroneous idea that genes are determinative of their destiny to want to do it in the first place.
Trope of the Times: Biology is destiny
The more we learn about the interactions of genetics and our environments, the more we realize that even if we restrict our study to purely physical expression (whatever they are), we’re affected by a lot more than just nutrition. Even things that seem to be genetic expressions are themselves the result of complex environmental interactions. Frankly, I see this complexity as part of what makes being alive so beautiful and mysterious.
The NRDC recently published an excellent piece on this topic entitled Looking Deep, Deep Into Your Genes. In particular, the paper explores the field of toxicogenomics, which is revealing just how profoundly the environment controls gene expression.
Said by Michael Gilbert August 9, 2007 at about 1:29 pm