VII. Have You Got What it Takes?, Page 3

Which Is More Important to You, Heredity or Environment?

Heated debate surrounds the discussion of heredity versus environment (“nature versus nurture”) as factors in determining child development. At one extreme are those who believe we are slaves to our genetic makeup, with everything predetermined from the colour of our eyes to our life span to a propensity for mugging old ladies. At the opposite end of the spectrum are those who hold that the environment — our home conditions and the way we are raised — can override almost any aspect of our heredity. The one extreme seems to have no place at free will; the other almost no place for predetermination. As is usual in such cases, the truth lies somewhere in between.

There are things, such as hair curliness and flat-footedness, which are entirely genetic. No amount of bread crusts will make your straight hair curly — only a visit to the hairdresser. Only coloured contact lenses can change the colour of your eyes. But from there down, while heredity has a definite role in things like height, speech, co-ordination, eyesight and learning ability, our environment (nutrition, where we live, exercise, our role models, the size of our family, our parents’ income) plays a role in what way or how completely we achieve within the limits set by our genes. And there are other aspects of development, for example which language we learn and which religion we practice, which are completely cultural, where genetics plays no part at all.

You can take a child of any genetic makeup, adopt him into any given culture, and he will speak that culture’s language and worship that culture’s gods. If that culture believes in capital punishment, so probably will he; if they are disgusted by the thought of eating pork or lizards, so will he probably be.

But if a child with the DNA for achondroplasia or Down Syndrome is adopted by a family of tall people or Oxford dons, there is nothing which will make that child grow to six feet in height or able to get 6 A-levels at the age of 14. If you have the genes for Huntington’s chorea there is nothing that can stop you from developing the disease barring early death from something else.

There is a large sphere of life where our genes definitely play a role, in terms of predispositions or as things which can be triggered by the environment: many kinds of cancers, for example, have a known genetic component but the cancer may or may not be triggered by environmental factors. A normal child’s intelligence or height can certainly be enhanced or retarded by nutrition and parental stimulation, both environmental factors.

But there is a tremendous area of social life, where debate still rages about whether and to what extend our genes are our fate. This includes matters such as sexuality (is there a “gay gene”?), propensity to violence or criminality or alcoholism, susceptibility to depression and hyperactivity are all areas where the debate over the roles played by heredity and environment continues. Studies of identical twins separated at birth and raised in very different environments have shown that similarities which superficially seem environmental (such as hand gestures and style sense) can persist, and that life chances can be considerably altered by environmental factors.

What does all this have to do with adoption? It means that two families with very different ideas about the importance of heredity and environment can adopt the same child with very different results. One family will instil in the child a feeling that he is bound to repeat his birth parents’ mistakes and inherit their weaknesses and strengths. The other will more or less ignore the child’s genetic heritage and refuse to accept that there may be limitations on his development as long as they provide an ideal environment. Both will have done wrong by the child: the one by chaining him to his past, the other by refusing to recognise realistic natural limitations and setting him unattainable goals. Parents need to follow a middle path, always on the alert for ways to encourage their child to achieve beyond his apparent limitations, yet sensitive to when it’s time to recognise that natural boundaries have been reached.

If you have met the birth parents or are otherwise in a position to know, it can be a good idea to let a child know when he shows good or neutral traits from them: musical talent, athletic ability, a way of holding his head when concentrating, how he pulls on his earlobe when he’s tired. These help the child relate to his past. You can also help a child to understand better about a physical condition he has for example, hyperactivity disorders, by relating them to his birth family, because it can help a child understand that they are not his “fault”. You do the same thing when he shows traits in common with his adoptive family: expert fashion sense, a way of walking.

What you must not do is relate negative character traits or actions to the birth family. If you catch little Johnny kicking the dog you do not tell him he’s a violent no-good, just like his birth father. Almost all boys kick the dog a couple of times; it probably has nothing to do with his father. If your teenaged daughter starts to dress a little too old, you do not tell her she’s growing up to be a slut, just like her mother. Even if these traits were to some extent predisposed by the child’s DNA it can only have a negative effect to make them seem inevitable. If the child feels he has little control over his behaviour he has little incentive to try to improve it.

If behaviour becomes a real problem and professionals are involved, it may help to let them know whether similar behaviour has characterised the birth family, because in some cases there is a real genetic connection and the information may help in the diagnosis. Some schizophrenia has a definite biochemical-genetic basis. The initial stages of some serious medical conditions may look like simple behaviour problems. Other conditions such as Tourette’s Syndrome, which may look to lay people like simply bad behaviour are in fact neurological disorders which can be inherited.

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