Genetics at the root of it all

SEÁN FLEMING (Irish Examiner letters, October 7) denied that there is any scientific evidence that our genes play a significant role in our behaviour.

He was worried that a recent scientific conference in Dublin the 12th World Congress on Psychiatric Genetics was likely to "perpetuate the myth" that genetics do indeed play a role.

Not only did he appeal vainly to science to deny the obvious (ie, that a great many behaviour patterns are inherited from our parents' DNA), but he displayed almost unbelievable woolly thinking by objecting to a scientific discussion forum because there was no "substantial scientific evidence" for the theories being discussed at it.