Word: xyy
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...Boston study began in 1969 to inform the parents of babies with XYY chromosomes that males with two Y chromosomes may exhibit criminal tendencies...
Publicity by a group called Science for The People last year forced the cessation of the study. The relation between XYY chromosomes and criminal behavior is unproven, the group maintained. Therefore the XYY study might act as a "self-fulfilling prophecy" by influencing parental relations with an XYY baby that might otherwise mature normally...
...Jonathan R. Beckwith '57, professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and a leader of Science for The People, attacked the XYY study, and "much of human behavioral genetics," as a pseudo-science, which attempted to perpetuate unproven ideas in the public mind...
...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...