The general public needs one. I know that as a biology student, I’m biased, but I really think we need some understanding of genetics to make responsible, informed decisions about our beliefs and behaviour.
Last year, as part of my course, we used a computer program which featured some videos about Down Syndrome. We were using the program for other stuff, but I decided I’d take a look at these videos. A woman was saying that her son had Down Syndrome. She said she didn’t get the test for it done while she was pregnant because her and her husband were healthy and non-disabled, the child would be too.
I sometimes wonder where people think disabled children come from. Do they think they fall from the sky? I’ve seen on TV and YouTube parents saying ‘I never thought I would be the parent of a child with special needs’, and been puzzled by this. Now I suppose it’s due to the same misconception the woman in the video had. Presumably, these people believe disabled kids come from either disabled parents or illness in pregnancy.
I don’t know how common the idea she had is, but I feel that if it’s not rare, the doctor really ought to have explained to her how congenital disabilities arise, and therefore why they offer to test for them. The woman then went on to say that she received pretty much no help or information after her child was diagnosed. I wonder if she worried if it would affect any future children she had, if she still doesn’t understand what causes the condition. Things like this stop people from making informed decisions about having kids and having tests during pregnancy.
The thing that triggered this post though, is the recent stuff about genetic copy number variants being associated with ADHD. Bizarrely, one of the authors of study claims that it proves ADHD is a genetic disorder. Despite the fact that only 16% of ADHD kids have these CNVs, and 8% of non-ADHD kids have them. There are now a load of debates and stuff online saying ‘is it genetic or is it junk food or bad parenting?’. How difficult is the idea that most (if not all) things about us are the result of both genetics and environment? I’m not even going to talk about the leap people make from ‘it’s caused by their environment’ to ‘they must have rubbish parents’.
I’m reminded of a lecture I went to by Susan Greenfield*, where she said that not a lot of how the brain ends up is genetic. She talked about a study on transgenic mice with Huntington’s disease. The mice had much slower symptom progression if they were in a more interesting environment with more to do. They still had Huntington’s, because they still had that gene. Nothing in the environment could change that, but it could drastically change how bad the disease was. ‘It’s genetic’ doesn’t mean nothing can be done about it, or nothing could have been done. I don’t know why so much of what I read seems to ignore this.
I accidentally ended up in the same room as an evangelical talk the other week. The guy was saying that his understanding of The Selfish Gene was that everything about us is determined by our genetics. Everything. I tried to correct him, but wasn’t articulate enough to get my point across. If everything was genetic then identical twins would be the same person, as they have the same DNA. Part of his religious beliefs, I fear, are based on him not understanding science.
I have friends who did not even do a GCSE in Biology. I feel that this kind of stuff needs to be taught to people. Maybe less about how the heart works and how a plant is fertilised, and more about stuff like this, stuff that can affect people’s lives. But I suppose a useful education will always be something we want and never get, and that's perhaps a different rant...
*In case anyone wonders what I think of Susan Greenfield's views on modern technology, I really don't agree with her.
