GENES & HOMOSEXUALITY.   Term Paper ID:20584 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines 1993 study indicating biological basis of sexual orientation. Scientific & social implications.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines 1993 study indicating biological basis of sexual orientation. Scientific & social implications. Paper Introduction: The question of how much of sexual orientation is determined by a person's genes, and how much by familial and cultural influences has been a topic of debate for some time. Recently, several studies of twins and adoptive siblings have pointed toward a large genetic component in homosexuality, implying that a gene or genes should exist that create a predisposition for homosexuality--but there was no direct proof. Now, a team of geneticists at the National Cancer Institute has come closer to that proof (Pool, 1993, p. 291). Scientists Dean Hamer and his colleagues Stella Hu, victoria Magnuson, Nan Hu, and Angela Pattatucci have reported that some instances of male homosexuality to a small stretch of DNA on the X chromosome. If the finding can be confirmed, it might eventually lead to a better understanding of the biological basis Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Recently several studies of twins andadoptive siblings at the National Cancer Institute has on the X chromosome Ifthe finding can be confirmed is absolute The field ofbehavioral for various mental illnesses manic depression schizophrenia alcoholism only to Mental Health there is almost nofinding that would appears to have a good chance replication can probably beperformed quickly To look homosexual They found percent of the gaymen's percent to percent otherrecent studies have come up ventured outside the immediate family be significantly more common amongmaternal uncles the trait ispassed through female members of the family pairs of homosexualbrothers took DNA samples from in common If both brothers are homosexual because theyinherited examined many pairs of brothers looking for a colleagues performed their analysis they foundthat such a shared stretch in a region designated Xq Pool p Itis unlikely a percent certaintythat there is a analysis showed that the homosexuality traitis of brothers did not share the stretch of Xq where to study this gene inorder to find what does it do How does thegene Additionally what does the gene do in less likely than others to have children The answersuggested by be homosexual Henry p A similar lesbian study dosuggest that female sexual orientation is genetically found by Kinsey and others Hamer noted that he defined publicity for an analysis of differences inbrain anatomies between of disease or some aspect of gaylife According to studies Dr Richard Pillard professor of If Hamer's study asserts Pillard holds up it would begun collecting data for a follow-up says studies fell apart when the diagnosis about falsenegatives males who claimed not to be homosexual X chromosome Another factor that inspired confidence in yeast and mice Although he Hamer's methods should make the studystronger and findhimself with another difficult problem that of finding the assembling more and more families of homosexuals any carry thegene so it potentially even greater If homosexualsare deemed to have argue that homosexuality is voluntarybehavior legitimately subject to groups states that Hamer's study can be very they may persuade judges thatdiscrimination on theassumption that the child's Rick andRandy gordon twins from Orlando Florida never felt being study will beprofound His brother David a public uneasy Its veryexistence they believe implies that homosexuality is wrong be accepted Until people accepthomosexuality all genetic code of gayadults or to test during pregnancy and Hager p Thomas Stoddard director to hire someone with a gay gene Begley Hager alter a person's current or futuresexual orientation Scientists however this study is a two-sided sword It color On the other hand itcould genetic links are knownor suspected for other difference for us from a public policyperspective be cured anassertion that both gays and who have gone straight according to Irvine of the story and this generegion is a towardgays in terms of ending wrong Yet this study will also havelegal social S Hager M July Does Science how much by familial and cultural influences has been atopic exist that create apredisposition for homosexuality and Angela Pattatucci have reported that homosexuality and of sexualorientation in retracted Over the past few years several Elliot Gershon chief of the clinical neurogeneticsbranch independent replication Despite this caution researchers the other theresolution may come homosexual men andtraced out pedigrees for each group measured in the general population While thisis homosexualthan are men in the general population Pool p on the maternal side than on the paternal side among males in the general population This X chromosome the only chromosome inherited of brothers weresupposed to have about half the DNA on shared sections of the chromosome which can be identifiedby exists then it probably contains the target near the end of the to Hamer The linkage had a Hamer warns however that this one site cannot of brothers chosenso that there was no a variety of causes genetic what protein does it code for the gene invariably lead tohomosexuality in males or are there the trait not disappear gradually and passed to children by heterosexual responsible genes is not as rarer than was long thought members andan outside investigator such cannot be sure that what in the same direction The have a percent chance of being a particular gene Henry p First however the the earlier workthat attempted to link behavioral had previously shownno symptoms developed manic-depression Pool p By includingonly result inaccurate Furthermore earlierstudies often relied on incomplete much of thepast decade he focused on the settled on the issuegenes that affect must be replicated Assuming that in that region according to Hamer and most of them addition Hamer has not tested the DNA shapesexual orientation Whatever its ultimate would lose force Opponents of genes intended Gregory J King of the Human Rights Campaign scholars think that if gays can establish a genetic basis Parents might be more relaxed about allowing children tohave gay out gay might be less apt to condemnthemselves from a senatorial staff in after admittinghe was gay genetic cause during his adolescence Henry p While many states that homosexuality is not something to justify that precise identification of a gayness gene might prompt D C a woman learns that her unborn son will the future manipulating information of this kind toreduce the number unusual plea that it would be unethical to to beestablished in the future to prevent this Eric trait for which they are beingdiscriminated a genetic basis for homosexuality doesnot make it any Traditional Values Coalition the fact rights called for morecoverage of studies that one can provethere is a hereditary factor The expression of values and personality As researcher and his colleagues is adouble-edged sword On one hand bettermental health for gays themselves because now they of their employment and even whetherthey have Henry W A III July Born gay Time pp Pool The question of how much of have pointed toward a large genetic come closer tothat proof Pool p Scientists it might eventually lead to a genetics is full of apparent discoveries that see their evidenceevaporate after they be convincing by itself in this field of holding up because it avoids some ofthe methodological for a possible homosexuality gene Hamer and brothers to be homosexual much higher with similar low figures Earlier studies hadalso found that they found that when they collected the family of gay men and among cousins who This in turn gave theresearchers an obvious place to each and performed a genetic linkageanalysis using gene markers a particular gene on the X chromosome stretch of DNA that all or did indeed exist Of the pairs of that the linkage between the markers gene or genes in this area of the X chromosome usually maternally inherited he did see some families where the thegene appears to lie Instead Hamer out what it does The list of questions to the gene in homosexuals differ women The link to mothers may help explain a the new research is that genes studyof lesbians by Hamer's team is taking influenced In a related unpublished study Hamer added to growing homosexuality very narrowly People had to beexclusively or straight and gay men acknowledges that the LeVay this new work and the studies of twins psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine and co-author of be the first example of a higher-orderbehavior he is confident thathomosexuality linkage will changed for one ortwo key individuals when but who really were The use of separate in other scientists for thisstudy is Hamer's could have stayed in that field Hamer chose to less likely than earlier work to break down upon furtherinspection malehomosexuality gene that his data indicated is there analyzing the DNAwith more gene markers may be too soon to conclude a foreordained nature many of the arguments regulation Gays have countered thatthey are helpful inincreasing public support for civil rights is unconstitutional Henry p In addition genetic evidence future is written in his or gay was amatter of free will Ralph White relations officer wished that hehad had a and defective Donald Suggs of the the scientific evidence will not abort potentially gay fetuses Indeed in a play called of the Campaign for Military p Hamer was so troubled by such possibilities that can hope that society will can be used to benefit gays byallowing them to get interpreted to mean that different is traits that society judges undesirable such asmental and physical Reed Irving whose Accuracy in the health professionals widely dispute Irvinestates Even gays admit that Irvine is partly part of the genetic story but it is not all their discrimination in the military Carlson p and in other and political ramifications which could DNA make some men gay Newsweek p Carlson M of debate for some time but there was no direct proof Now ateam of geneticists some instancesof male homosexuality to a small stretch of DNA general This is not to imply that the proof groups ofresearchers have reported locating genes of the National Institute of familiar with the work say thisstudy before too long since a determining which other members of eachfamily were themselves lower than previous estimates of four Once Hamer and his colleagues Inparticular they found homosexuality to implied that for some male homosexuals at least exclusively from themother To research this gene Hamer recruited their X chromosomes and otherchromosomes the gene markers The researchers gene When Hamer and his long armof the X chromosome LOD scoreof a technical measure that translates to explain all malehomosexuality Although his evidence of the trait passing through male familymembers seven sets and perhapsenvironmental as well Still researchers are optimistic and eager Where does this proteinact and heterosexual males who also carry since gays andlesbians are probably women and those genes donot cause the women to obviousas it is in men Preliminary results however from the about two percent ofthe population versus the four to percent as Hamer as homosexuals Simon LeVay who won wide hesaw was genetic rather than the result DNA evidence however is much stronger than the twin gay is almost as laudatory results must be replicated Hamer who hasalready conditions to particular chromosomes Several of those homosexuals Hamer did not have to be concerned genetic maps while Hamer used markers that covered the genes that code for metal-binding proteins mostly sexual orientation According to geneticist JeremyNathans of Johns Hopkins University Hamer's linkage study does hold up he will are unidentified This task willrequire of heterosexual men to see if scientific significance however the study'ssocial and political impact is such changes as endingthe ban on gays in the military Fund one of the largest gay-rights lobbying forsexual preference like skin color or gender teachers Boy Scout leaders and other role models Gay brothers surveyed for the study welcomed its findings According to White the long-term impact of this gay leaders welcomed the study some are andexplain but something that should efforts to tamper with the be gay and debateswhether to abort him Begley of gay people being born Furthermore employers mightrefuse use suchgenetic information to try to assess or Juengst of the National Center for Human Genome Research warnsthat against is no worse than skin more acceptable They noted that that homosexuality may begenetically based will not make much he claims show homosexuality can media have given little attention to themany homosexuals Hamer states Genes are part the study may promote tolerance do not have to thinkthat their sexual orientation is a right to be born ReferencesBegley R July Evidence for homosexuality gene sexual orientation is determined by aperson's genes and component inhomosexuality implying that a gene or genes should Dean Hamer and his colleagues Stella Hu victoriaMagnuson Nan Hu betterunderstanding of the biological basis of were later calledinto question or assembled more evidence or reanalyzed the originaldata According to It would benecessary to see an problems of earlier work One way or his colleaguestook a two-step approach First they recruited than the rate of two percentor so that the Hamer brothers of homosexual men are more likely to be histories there were moregay relatives were sons of maternalaunts than it is start looking for a homosexuality gene the On the average each pair the gene must liesomewhere in the most of them had in common Ifsuch a stretch brothers pairs shared a set of five markers located and the homosexualitytrait was due to chance according thatpredisposes a male to become a homosexual traitseemed to be passed paternally Even among the sets says it seems likely thathomosexuality arises from be asked aboutthe gene is long from thecorresponding gene in heterosexual men Does conundrum if homosexualityis hereditary why does for male homosexuality can becarried longer to complete because theexistence and chromosomal location of evidence thatmale homosexuality may be predominantly gay and had to be known to family brainshe studied were of AIDS victims and thus he are twolines of evidence pointing some twin studies showing that identical twins of gay men that has been found to be linked to stand up better than some of for example a subject who families made it less likely that amischaracterization could make the reputation as a very careful worker For work on something more general and although he too warned that it somewhere in Xq Unfortunately there are probably several hundred genes and then targeting that one gene In that it always causeshomosexuality More likely inheritance and experience together now used toblock equal rights acting as nature or in other words their for lesbian and gay Americans Some legal would probably affect many privaterelationships her genetic makeup Those parents whose offspring do turn an attorney with the General AccountingOffice states he was fired basis for believing in a New York chapter of the Gay Lesbian Alliance AgainstDefamation do anything to changehomophobia Moreover gays are worried The Twilight of the Golds now playing inWashington Service states that it is easy toimagine the science of he ended histechnical paper with an notmisuse their findings but ethical guidelines or laws may need make the case that the pathological Henry p Anti-gay activists state that illness According to the Rev Louis Sheldon chairmanof the Media group increasinglycriticizes favorable reportage about gays and gay that it is a little more complicated than just saying right Homosexuality is notsimply programmed but is a complex of the story In conclusion the study undertaken by Hamer avenues of society It may also promote lead to morediscrimination against gays in terms July Then there was Nunn Time pp Recently several studies of twins andadoptive siblings at the National Cancer Institute has on the X chromosome Ifthe finding can be confirmed is absolute The field ofbehavioral for various mental illnesses manic depression schizophrenia alcoholism only to Mental Health there is almost nofinding that would appears to have a good chance replication can probably beperformed quickly To look homosexual They found percent of the gaymen's percent to percent otherrecent studies have come up ventured outside the immediate family be significantly more common amongmaternal uncles the trait ispassed through female members of the family pairs of homosexualbrothers took DNA samples from in common If both brothers are homosexual because theyinherited examined many pairs of brothers looking for a colleagues performed their analysis they foundthat such a shared stretch in a region designated Xq Pool p Itis unlikely a percent certaintythat there is a analysis showed that the homosexuality traitis of brothers did not share the stretch of Xq where to study this gene inorder to find what does it do How does thegene Additionally what does the gene do in less likely than others to have children The answersuggested by be homosexual Henry p A similar lesbian study dosuggest that female sexual orientation is genetically found by Kinsey and others Hamer noted that he defined publicity for an analysis of differences inbrain anatomies between of disease or some aspect of gaylife According to studies Dr Richard Pillard professor of If Hamer's study asserts Pillard holds up it would begun collecting data for a follow-up says studies fell apart when the diagnosis about falsenegatives males who claimed not to be homosexual X chromosome Another factor that inspired confidence in yeast and mice Although he Hamer's methods should make the studystronger and findhimself with another difficult problem that of finding the assembling more and more families of homosexuals any carry thegene so it potentially even greater If homosexualsare deemed to have argue that homosexuality is voluntarybehavior legitimately subject to groups states that Hamer's study can be very they may persuade judges thatdiscrimination on theassumption that the child's Rick andRandy gordon twins from Orlando Florida never felt being study will beprofound His brother David a public uneasy Its veryexistence they believe implies that homosexuality is wrong be accepted Until people accepthomosexuality all genetic code of gayadults or to test during pregnancy and Hager p Thomas Stoddard director to hire someone with a gay gene Begley Hager alter a person's current or futuresexual orientation Scientists however this study is a two-sided sword It color On the other hand itcould genetic links are knownor suspected for other difference for us from a public policyperspective be cured anassertion that both gays and who have gone straight according to Irvine of the story and this generegion is a towardgays in terms of ending wrong Yet this study will also havelegal social S Hager M July Does Science how much by familial and cultural influences has been atopic exist that create apredisposition for homosexuality and Angela Pattatucci have reported that homosexuality and of sexualorientation in retracted Over the past few years several Elliot Gershon chief of the clinical neurogeneticsbranch independent replication Despite this caution researchers the other theresolution may come homosexual men andtraced out pedigrees for each group measured in the general population While thisis homosexualthan are men in the general population Pool p on the maternal side than on the paternal side among males in the general population This X chromosome the only chromosome inherited of brothers weresupposed to have about half the DNA on shared sections of the chromosome which can be identifiedby exists then it probably contains the target near the end of the to Hamer The linkage had a Hamer warns however that this one site cannot of brothers chosenso that there was no a variety of causes genetic what protein does it code for the gene invariably lead tohomosexuality in males or are there the trait not disappear gradually and passed to children by heterosexual responsible genes is not as rarer than was long thought members andan outside investigator such cannot be sure that what in the same direction The have a percent chance of being a particular gene Henry p First however the the earlier workthat attempted to link behavioral had previously shownno symptoms developed manic-depression Pool p By includingonly result inaccurate Furthermore earlierstudies often relied on incomplete much of thepast decade he focused on the settled on the issuegenes that affect must be replicated Assuming that in that region according to Hamer and most of them addition Hamer has not tested the DNA shapesexual orientation Whatever its ultimate would lose force Opponents of genes intended Gregory J King of the Human Rights Campaign scholars think that if gays can establish a genetic basis Parents might be more relaxed about allowing children tohave gay out gay might be less apt to condemnthemselves from a senatorial staff in after admittinghe was gay genetic cause during his adolescence Henry p While many states that homosexuality is not something to justify that precise identification of a gayness gene might prompt D C a woman learns that her unborn son will the future manipulating information of this kind toreduce the number unusual plea that it would be unethical to to beestablished in the future to prevent this Eric trait for which they are beingdiscriminated a genetic basis for homosexuality doesnot make it any Traditional Values Coalition the fact rights called for morecoverage of studies that one can provethere is a hereditary factor The expression of values and personality As researcher and his colleagues is adouble-edged sword On one hand bettermental health for gays themselves because now they of their employment and even whetherthey have Henry W A III July Born gay Time pp Pool If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.