Brody's Scribbles... Genetics or Environmental

By Bart Vogelzang | VANCOUVER ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA -- A couple of days ago I did something I’ve never done before. I’d hardly call it a Bucket List type of thing, however it has certainly been an eye opener for me. I spoke with someone who was adopted at only 4 months of age.

This adult man, adopted into a family that closely resembled his natural parents, told me that he felt alien from as far back as he can remember. He remembers that even at the age of two he was rejecting his mother. He felt strangeness, a difference, an isolation.

Those feelings only grew with time. It seems that there were other adopted siblings; 3 adopted and 3 natural to the parents, and they were interspaced progressively on the chronological scale, so that there was no distinct age barrier amongst them. However, this troubled man tells me that not only he, but also the other adopted kids could feel the difference. He assured me that the parents treated them all the same way, but something was just not the same.

The family was of European ancestry, and the parents were first generation immigrants. Somehow that was enough of a difference, and the reactions and behaviours of the adopted kids, in many circumstances, were notably different from those of the non-adopted kids. Reactions to foods, farm animals, and even seeing bodies of water, like ponds and rivers, were different. Even their religious feelings were different, some choosing a different faith, and one choosing to have no belief at all.

Now if this had come about from life experiences, something likely to happen over time, one might be able to reject the genetic component, but it didn’t. These differences were already manifesting themselves before puberty, and there can really only be one conclusion…the genetics of the kids themselves.

And really, if your reactions to seeing a pond, or having a certain food placed in front of you, are profoundly affected by your genetic makeup, can anyone seriously suggest that sexual orientation wouldn’t be even more profoundly affected by your genetic makeup? It is time for everyone to realize that many things are nearly beyond our conscious control. We are what we are, and change is not always readily at hand.