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On Nature vs. Nurture: An Unnecessary Debate

As old as the debate is, I am not sure it is "unnecessary." More appropriately, it is being updated/merged with the greater understanding of both environmental and hereditary factors and their co-dependence. It is an expansion of knowledge, not a dismissal of knowledge .like a convergence with Nature and Nurture trails-not being a fork in the road but parallel paths with crossover points.Look at the joint interactions, genes and environments. It is not one or the other; it is the interaction of both.We merge into the Ven diagram of LIFE!

Elizabeth (Betsy) Gettig, MS, CGC
Assistant Professor of Human Genetics
University of Pittsburgh
(August 2000)

On Nature vs. Nurture: An Unnecessary Debate

This nature and nurture argument intrigues me. I am basically an environmentalist, but I am also aware that a man is a man and not a monkey and that is definitely genetic. However, in most human matters, the environment is more influential.

I have heard a lot about the studies of identical twins. Concerning the studies of these twins, one thing that is very important and seems to be overlooked, (is that) both twins in the womb share the same environment. (I acknowledge that the position of a particular twin in the womb can create some differences.) This womb environment makes up the major proportion of the similarities between the twins before they are even born! 

.Also, another environmental matter that appears to be overlooked by the nature camp is that the .environment can even have an influence on a fetus or person even before conception. For example, it is difficult to convince me that a sperm or an egg coming from an alcohol or drug affected mother or father won't have an effect on an fetus prior to conception. In fact, there is a whole host of factors ranging from starvation. Studies from European countries that suffered starvation during World War II indicate that the effects are carried into the third generation.

These days, there appears to be some evidence that the effects of thalidomide are being carried into the next generation. I consider the influence of the environment to be so pervasive that genes are very busy trying to deal with the effects and repair any damage caused. A philosophical note-we have so radically modified the environment that we live in, this includes the lifestyle that we lead, .the different chemicals that we use, . and other factors of unknown influence, that the human race, possibly in as little as three thousand years, will be as different to us in behavior and appearance as we are to chimpanzees. To carry this further, different parts of the human race will experience different environments, and the human race will then differentiate into different breeds or castes, like dogs or cats are today.(that is, if we don't destroy ourselves)!

J. De Jong
Melbourne, Australia
(March 2001)