Questions at the Nexus of Behavioral Genetics (BG)

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Questions at the Nexus of Behavioral Genetics
(BG) BioethicsMEANING Matters, Too

• Erik Parens, PhD
• parense_at_thehastingscenter.org
• PCSBI, Washington, DC
• February 28, 2011

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Challenge

• You/we should figure out how to help citizens
  recognize
• (a) how fascinating and complicated the results
  of the new sciences of human behavior are, and
  
• (b) how important it is to continue asking what
  those results doand do notmean for fundamental
  ideas like freedom and equality
• including BG, neuroscience, evolutionary
  biology, developmental biology, etc.

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Emblematic History of BG

• 1966, Leonard Hestons schizophrenia (SZ) paper
  appears
• showed that genetic differences matter in
  explaining emergence of SZ
• similar results for other common disorders and
  behaviors
• 1990 Human Genome Project (HGP) begins
• aspiration to discover which genetic differences
  matter
• e.g., discover the gene for SZ analogous to
  gene for PKU
• maybe even the gene for aggression
• Early 2000s
• realization that original HGP picture was vastly
  simplified
• Around the start of the HGP many optimists
  could envision the imminent identification of
  genetic causes for common human diseases such as
  SZ. The truth is exactly the opposite.
• (Gottesman Petronis, 2003)

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More Complicated, Fascinating Truth

• Most genes dont code for just 1 product / have
  just 1 effect
• the central dogma in throes of radical revision
  
• Understanding single genes requires understanding
  interactions
• genomic environment
• cellular environment
• intrauterine environment
• family environment
• social environment
• environment environment
• Everything matters !
• genes, neurons, hormones, nutrients, stress,
  social status, toxins...

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Three Types of Question
PRACTICE of BG
MEANING of BG
CAUSES of Bioethical Views
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Questions re PRACTICE of Behavioral Genetics

• Most people think first of bioethicists as
  engaging such questions
• PCSBIs goal is to identify and promote policies
  and practices that ensure that scientific
  research, health care delivery, and technological
  innovation are conducted in an ethically
  responsible manner.
• Bioethicists answer questions like
• How should researchers handle incidental findings
  from BG research?
• How should policy makers prioritize offer of BG
  tests?
• Because patients need protection, researchers
  need guidance, policy makers need budgets,
• PRACTICE questions require answers

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Questions reMEANING of Behavioral Genetics
Findings

• Behavioral genetics investigates human behavior
  
• raises old questions about meaning of human
  freedom
• what do we mean when we say someone is free?
• how can we be objects and subjects?
• Behavioral genetics investigates genetic
  differences
• raises old questions about meaning of moral
  equality
• what do we mean when we say that all persons are
  equal
• how can we be physically different and morally
  equal?
• Those questions do not admit of answers the way
  PRACTICE questions do
• they demand more conversation, more questioning

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MEANING Questions (cont.)

• How we handle MEANING questions may affect how we
  handle some important PRACTICE questions
• Can we investigate genetic differences between
  groups, while maintaining our commitment to moral
  equality, or does such research ineluctably lead
  to discrimination?
• Can continuing to investigate the determinants of
  behavior support our efforts to act more
  humanely toward people who act badly, or do the
  results of such investigations ineluctably lead
  to de-humanization?
• But even apart from potential practical payoffs
  of asking MEANING questions, we should be asking
  them
• because as human beings and as citizens of a
  democracy, we care about what freedom and
  equality mean

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Questions reCAUSES of Bioethical Views

• Late 60s, when bioethics began, bioethicists
  leaned toward cognitivist understanding of
  their own practice
• apply disinterested reason to issues of bio
  practice and policy
• Emerging field of moral psychology invites more
  complex view of bioethics
• moral psychologists seek to explain why human
  beings vary in their responses to the same
  ethical question
• lots lately about neuroscience contribution to
  moral psychology
• but evolutionary biology, developmental biology,
  developmental psychology, social psychologyeven
  BG (however small)can in principle contribute
  to CAUSAL explanations of bioethical views

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• Questions about CAUSES admit of scientific
  answers
• BG might someday play small role in explaining
  differential responses to same question some re
  some PRACTICE
• BG might do something similar for MEANING
  questions
• PRACTICE questions require actionable answers
• BG researchers need help deciding how to handle
  incidental findings
• MEANING questions demand more conversation, more
  questioning
• what do we mean by freedom and equality?
• what doand dontBG findings mean for those
  fundamental values?

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Conclusion

• Our culture is ever less patient with MEANING
  questions
• Some great universities are flagging in their
  commitment to asking them
• asking doesnt grow economy/protect from
  harm/improve health
• but human beings citizens dont care only about
  those things
• Challenge how can you / we facilitate a
  conversation to help citizens recognize
• (a) how fascinating and complicated the results
  of the new sciences of human behavior are, and
• (b) how important it is to ask what the results
  of those sciences doand do notmean for
  fundamental ideas like freedom and equality.