Predicting personality.

Prof. Colin Blakemore introduces this discussion about the potential use of genetics in predicting and explaining personality. The other participants are Prof. Peter McGuffin (Institute of Psychiatry), Dr. Michael Maier (Imperial College London) and Prof. John Carey (Oxford University). If a gene for criminal tendencies were discovered, should it be eliminated? And who should decide what clinical conditions or personality traits to eliminate? What is the balance between genetic inheritance and environment in forming personality? Among the other topics discussed are whether people with severe psychiatric disorders should be cared for in the community and whether manipulation of the genome will soon become a fact rather than a distant possibility. If so, what sort of society will result? And what will we lose by eliminating apparently undesirable traits? Genes do not work in isolation and removing one trait may have unforeseen consequences.