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Biomedical subjects

L S PENROSE

Publications and source records attributed to L S PENROSE.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1953

Hereditary influences in relation to the problem of child adoption.

There is little exact information on the hereditary influences which are of greatest interest from the social and educational points of view. Many genes are involved in the origins of socially significant traits and there are usually many steps in the causal chain linking gene to trait. The value of genetical judgements is thus limited; they cannot be substituted for facts ascertained about the physical and mental state of the child itself at the time of adoption. Information on the family occurrence of recessive autosomal or sex-linked traits may be used for predicting the likelihood of the onset of diseases later on in life. The knowledge that a rare dominant abnormality is present in a close relative is especially important if the close relative is the subject's own parent. But most genetical problems in adoption cases concern graded characters, and here prediction can only be very tentative. A definite degree of likeness obtains within families for graded characters, but the genetical divergence may be considerable, and it can be accentuated by environment.

Adoption↗