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Fear of eugenics is paranoia

TO THE DAILY:

I wish to criticize Edward Chusid's erroneous analysis ("Science is moving to eugenics," 2/06/96) of B. Bower's article "Gene Tied to Excitable Personality" (Science News, 149(1), p. 4) and refute his exaggerated prophecy of modern science. First, Mr. Chusid's claim that the Science News report is evidence of modern science's endorsement of eugenics is unjustified. However, the Science News author never proposed that the reproductive freedom of individuals diagnosed with personality disorders be restricted.

Second, Chusid's statement that "... human personality's traits ... (are) governed by one gene" is also incorrect. The Science News article states that researchers have identified a "gene that (simply) participates in shaping a specific personality trait" and further adds that "(g)enetics alone does not determine personality." The report's author clearly confesses the limitations of heredity in determining human behavior. He does not propose the use of the research findings in "... genetically engineering humans," as Chusid unjustifiably states.

Third, Chusid is wrong to argue that "curiosity" is "... most responsible ... for all human advancement" because, not only does Harvard University anthropologist Stephen Jay Gould suggest in "The Mismeasure of Man" that the "...evolution and structural organization of (the) brain" -- and not curiosity -- is largely responsible for the diversity of human behavior, but Chusid fails to cite previous literature to defend his far-reaching but otherwise blind faith in curiosity.

Chusid's apocalyptic vision of a future in which modern science will resurrect Hitlerian and Stalinist governments that destroy "curiosity and social development" is representative of his inadequate knowledge of modern genetics, his inability to read scientific literature properly, and his distorted conception of the direction in which modern science is moving. Some of the world's most respected biologists have accepted that heredity plays only a limited role in human development and have expressed concern over the negative implications genetic research may have on human society. While Mr. Chusid clearly believes that "(s)cience is moving to eugenics," I believe that he and others like him are headed toward a future of ignorance, misinformation and paranoia.

SHYAM BHAKTA

LSA SENIOR