Suicide and the selfish gene.
The application of an evolutionary perspective to human behaviour generates philosophical, political and scientific controversy. Modern human symbolic consciousness is not the cumulation of the long trend that natural selection would predict. The new archaeological data suggested the anatomical and behavioural innovation has been episodic and rare separated by long periods of stagnate. New behavioural mode and the new skeletal structure of modem human arose as an incidental exaptation. Additionally the genetic basis dysfunction connected with suicide behaviour and growing statistic suicide among teenager is contradictory to the theory that our behaviour are programmed in any detail by selfish genes. In this cases genetically determined suicidal behaviour should be rapidly eliminated by natural selection.
Satora
Leszek
L
Poison Information Centre, Jagiellonian University Medical College Kraków, Poland. satora@wp.pl
D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D013405:Suicide