Word: xyy
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...screening produced 45 to 50 boys with XXY karyotypes (chromosomal arrangements) and nearly as many of an XYY karyotype. Walzer and his co-researchers have concluded that certain disturbances, notably a slowness in speech development, are associated with the extra X chromosome, Dr. Park S. Gerald, professor of Pediatrics and a participant in the study, says. Gerald states more tentatively that the extra Y chromosome can be linked "on the average" with "more excitable, more emotional" behavior than normal. Gerald says that the severity of this deviance is yet to be determined, but he indicates that the studies...
This hardly solved the problem. The more crucial consent form--obtained from the XYY parents--did not detail the full extent of the investigation...
...vagueness of the form was particularly offensive to the CDF. William C. Smith '55, director of CDF's medical experimentation project, explains that failure to inform XYY parents of the potential "risks" associated with their child's development is deceptive and unethical, because the parents are not told of the true nature of the research. On the other hand, Smith says, to inform the parents fully of aberrant behavior they allegedly could anticipate is equally unethical and unfair to an innocent child. Such behavior patterns have not been documented, and saddling a child's parents with such a hobgoblin might...
...objections put Walzer in a double-bind: Because behavioral problems have never been definitively linked to the XYY karyotype, it is wrong to create delusory fears on the part of the XYY parents by telling them too much. Yet because such behavioral problems are on the minds of the researchers, the scientists should be honest to their subjects about the investigation...
...supporters of Walzer and his right to investigate the XYY matter would also like to see Walzer acknowledge the pressure of the outside groups. Even Park Gerald, Walzer's associate, foresees a "terrible precedent" and says that other colleagues of his, warned by Walzer's retiring example, do not want to touch controversial research...