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Due to the fact that many genes serve an essential function, eliminating or compromising gene activity throughout the entire animal often causes either embryonic death, which prevents the analysis of genetic function altogether, or causes other genes to compensate or take over the function of the compromised or eliminated gene. This in turn prevents researchers from identifying the unique role this gene plays in disease and development. Site-specific recombinase (SSR) technology gives scientists the ability to overcome these difficulties because it allows for the introduction of controlled genetic mutations in mice. These mutations can be isolated to a particular organ or biological area, or they can be activated at a certain stage in development. Because of this control, researchers are able to bypass a number of problems which seemed absolutely insurmountable only a few years ago, and which prevented much research into gene function from progressing. In short, a new and revolutionary biology is made possible through the application of this technology.
However, this way of understanding the contributions made by our genetic material to our development and behavior is seemingly taken for granted by biologists. Scientists assume that there is a direct causal link between our genetic material and how we are as complex organisms; moreover, the current scientific consensus seems to be that the technology described above will be able to uncover this link. Philosophers of science have debated the extent to which complex biological systems can be explained in terms of contributions made by the genome. Many have argued that some behaviors are too complex ever to be explained in terms of the contribution of one gene (or many). There is even evidence for the fact that certain diseases (such as Huntington’s) cannot be explained adequately in terms of genetic contributions. More radically, some influential philosophers of biology argue that our genetic material alone cannot even be said to contain information independent of the complex and dynamic cellular environment upon which the expression, modification and biological ‘realization’ of our genes relies. If this were indeed the case, then it seems that scientists and philosophers alike would be obliged to reorient themselves in relation to certain foundational assumptions which have motivated the investigation of the human genome. SSR technology must be examined from a philosophical perspective because it seems to hold a unique possibility for exploring the limits of the scientific investigation into genetic function. How far can we go in attributing our genetic material as the cause or source of complex human traits, such as behavior? If indeed SSR technology holds as much promise as scientists maintain, it might be the case that the development and behavior of complex organisms can be explained more thoroughly in terms of genetic causation than current scientific and philosophical opinion holds possible.
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