To who does genetic information belong, the individual or the family? Is this information private or collective? Can genes and their functions even participate in any ownership debates?
Surprisingly, The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted thousands of patents on human genes – in fact, about 20 percent of our genes are patented. A gene [...]
This term, coined by Richard Dawkins expresses a gene-centred view of evolution. The contention is that the genes that get passed on are the ones whose consequences serve their own implicit interests (to continue being replicated), not necessarily those of the organism.
In Dawkins theory, we cannot view the act of conception as replication of the [...]
Men of the Mosuo society, who live around Lugu Lake on the border between Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces, China, do help to raise kids—just not their own, with whom the men typically have only limited relationships. Instead the men help look after all the children born to their own sisters, aunts, and other women of [...]
Also tagged family, identity, sense, structureAs families and citizens are refigured in a ‘genetic network’ (Armstrong 1998) or through forms of ‘biosociality’ (Rainbow, 1996) the individual needs to find ways to define their autonomy to themselves and to society.
The spotlight on shared genetic material alludes to the biological association (Arribus-Allyson et all, 2008) suggesting not only anatomical, but behavioural similarities [...]
Survivor’s guilt, the mental condition that occurs when a person perceives themselves to have done wrong by surviving a traumatic event, was first diagnosed in the 1960s as a condition suffered by holocaust survivors. It was later observed as part of post traumatic stress related to combat, natural disasters and even work redundancies. Interestingly the [...]
Also tagged family, guiltFrom the perspective of Darwinian evolution, reproduction has a single purpose: to mix our genes with another person’s to help ours survive and propagate - to help our own genes thrive in the next generation. But where does the desire to procreate come from when the genetic material in question is known to be dangerous, [...]
Also tagged BRCA, evolutionKnowledge changes our perception of biology, replacing natural chaos with mathematical order. Statistics, quantification, calculations, numbers, charts and graphs, externalise and give form to our bodily functions and components. With a data sheet, there is suddenly simplified information to consider, and a mathematical equasion eludes that there are right and wrong answers.
Also tagged BRCA, information, visualisationVery interestingly the UK’s no.1 family history site has chosen a name that reflects a biological perception of the notion of family.
As the site offers to Search for your ancestors in 669 million family trees, census, birth, marriages, death and military records, the genetic affiliation brings up questions. Are familial ties through marriage or adoption [...]