Readers Café - Staff Picks

More Than Genes
By Dan Agin.

Reviewed by Nancy Fischer - Adult Information Services

In More Than Genes, Professor Dan Agin presents a highly accessible update of one facet of an age old argument: nature versus nuture. Agin's focus is the interaction of genes and environmental challenges during human gestation. He discusses the importance of the timing of these toxic assaults on the developing fetus. The examples cited are diverse and include chemical agents, radiation, nutritional deprivation, maternal stress, and the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs.

In the case of maternal stress, the author reveals a growing body of evidence that maternal stress during pregnancy not only results in intrauterine biochemical changes but can irreversibly affect the stress response of her offspring. Some anxiety disorders can be attributed to gestational stress.

Agin concludes that if we abandon the naïve idea of "immaculate gestation" we will better protect fetal development. Fetal damage should not be accepted as a genetic imperative but viewed as "a tractable problem, much of it man-made."

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