Scientists conducting human genome research are identifying genetic disorders and traits at an accelerating rate. Genetic factors in human behavior appear particularly complex and slow to emerge, yet are raising their own set of difficult ethical, legal, and social issues. In Behavioral Genetics: The Clash of Culture and Biology, Ronald Carson and Mark Rothstein bring together well-known experts from the fields of genetics, ethics, neuroscience, psychiatry, sociology, and law to address the cultural, legal, and biological underpinnings of behavioral genetics. The authors discuss a broad range of topics, including the ethical questions arising from gene therapy and screening, molecular research in psychiatry, and the legal ramifications and social consequences of behavioral genetic information. Throughout, they focus on two basic concerns: the quality of the science behind behavioral genetic claims and the need to formulate an appropriate, ethically defensible response when the science turns out to be good.

Throughout, the authors focus on two basic concerns: the quality of the science behind behavioral genetic claims and the need to formulate an appropriate, ethically defensible response when science turns out to be good. This book [is] a top priority for any person, lay or academic, working or studying in this complex field. Human Reproduction and Genetic Ethics [T]his volume is the finest currently available as an introduction to the issues that are involved in, and arise because of, the revival in behavioral genetics research. -- Robert A. Crouch Religious Studies Review

Ronald A. Carson is the Harris L. Kempner Distinguished Professor in the Humanities in Medicine and director of the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Mark A. Rothstein is a professor of bioethics, health, law at the University of Louisville.