TOOLS FOR PUBLIC CONVERSATION ABOUT BEHAVIORAL GENETICS

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DESCRIPTION (Adapted from the Investigator's Abstract): Progress in behavioral genetics has created considerable public anxiety. Some of that anxiety is rooted in ignorance. Some of it reflects knowledge of past abuses of putatively scientific accounts of complex human behaviors. And behavioral genetics also sometimes challenges deep assumptions regarding the nature of human beings. The first premise of this collaborative project between The Hastings Center and the American Association for the Advancement of Science is that behavioral genetics promises to shed light not only on the genetic component of diseases, but also on the genetic component of complex behaviors--and thus ultimately on what it means to be human. The project's second premise is that behavioral genetics can be put to hurtful purposes; witness the Bell Curve. The third premise is that for our society to promote the salutary uses and resist the pernicious uses of behavioral genetics, there must be open and informed public conversation about what the scientific findings do--and do not--tell us about behavior and about what and who we are. This project's primary objective is to provide tools and resources for such public discussion about behavioral genetics and about the significant ethical and social issues raised by it. Tools in this context means concepts and distinctions that facilitate clear, careful, and meaningful conversation among professional and lay groups. Meeting the project's primary objective entails four components: First, the Working Group, including behavioral geneticists, bioethicists, and others, will identify and describe the basic scientific ideas and methods of behavioral genetics research. Second, the Working Group will examine the extent to which behavioral genetics casts new light on enduring ethical and social questions and problems. Two large, interrelated categories capture the relevant issues: (a) identity and responsibility and (b) equality and justice. Third, to focus its inquiries concerning the basic scientific, ethical, and social issues, and to refine the conceptual tools and develop written and other resources, the Working Group will examine three cases: bipolar disorder, impulsivity, and intelligence. Finally, in addition to five interdisciplinary meetings of the Working Group at The Hastings Center, midway through the project there will be a public conference on the West Coast and a culminating public conference on the East Coast. The purposes of those conferences are both to introduce the tools and to hone them. To disseminate the tools, the project will develop a series of resources for lay and professional audiences, including a primer of behavioral genetics for the general public (which will appear both in hard copy and on the Web site they create), a special supplement of the Hastings Center Report distributed to diverse professional audiences, and a volume of essays for scholars.