Seeking answers in the genome of Adam Lanza
In a move likely to renew a longstanding ethical controversy, geneticists are quietly making plans to study the DNA of Adam Lanza, 20, who killed 20 children and seven adults in Newtown, Conn. Their work will be an effort to discover biological clues to extreme violence.
The researchers, at the University of Connecticut, confirmed their plans through a spokeswoman but declined to provide details. But other experts speculated that the geneticists might look for mutations that might be associated with mental illnesses and ones that might also increase the risk for violence.
They could look at all of Mr. Lanza’s genes, searching for something unusual like gene duplications or deletions or unexpected mutations, or they might determine the sequence of his entire genome, the genes and the vast regions of DNA that are not genes, in an extended search for aberrations that could determine which genes are active and how active they are.
But whatever they do, this apparently is the first time researchers will attempt a detailed study of the DNA of a mass killer.
Blowback
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ATLANTA, GA (AP) Scientists today released the results of DNA testing upon Sandy Neck shooter, Adam Lanza. Dr. Moe Howard, together with colleagues Dr. Larry Fine and Dr. Shemp Howard, announced that they had positively identified the long suspected “Bushmaster” gene as the causal factor…
turfmann on December 25, 2012 at 8:54 AM
And when they get the answer? Familiar with the concept of the slippery-slope?
clippermiami on December 25, 2012 at 8:56 AM
Wonder how this will influence the abortion debate?
BKeyser on December 25, 2012 at 9:00 AM
When I described this to my wife and asked the “what are we going to do about it” question she responded that there isn’t much you can do, its the same reason that “thankfully not everyone becomes a Democrat”
clippermiami on December 25, 2012 at 9:01 AM
Then it’s clear how to deal with such people from now on:
Nyuk first and ask questions later.
Shy Guy on December 25, 2012 at 9:06 AM
Why him? Because the victims were kids? He was still basically a kid.
People like Gacy or Dalhmer or many others, would have been better subjects. Their actions were more the result of a fixed and long standing evil, and not the sudden and unpredictable one time actions of a mental breakdown.
Mimzey on December 25, 2012 at 9:15 AM
‘
If only we could engineer the perfect race…..
‘
cntrlfrk on December 25, 2012 at 9:21 AM
That’s right, puddin’head.
Adolph? Adolph, is that you?
turfmann on December 25, 2012 at 9:29 AM
Exactly.
Lets try that again. What could go wrong?
Mimzey on December 25, 2012 at 9:32 AM
They must be looking for the “evil” gene. But they won’t find anything different there than in his victims. It’s built into everyone.
Red Creek on December 25, 2012 at 9:34 AM
The key is his computer drive – not his dna.
Blake on December 25, 2012 at 10:01 AM
I don’t think the soul has DNA.
davidk on December 25, 2012 at 10:37 AM
Exactly.
Lets try that again. What could go wrong?
We have the technology, to make them better, faster, stronger.
JFKY on December 25, 2012 at 10:45 AM
And I’m thinking with modern materials and sewing, the Master Race’s uniforms are going to be WAY kewler, too!
JFKY on December 25, 2012 at 10:52 AM
Will they be able to run faster?
Ve vill finally beat zem in ze Olympics!
Mimzey on December 25, 2012 at 10:52 AM
But of course it wasn’t his fault. He was just born that way. He was destined to kill… /s
A slippery slope for liberals who want to claim that they’re just born a certain way concerning their proclivities.
If one is excused for behavior that they’re born with because it supposedly does no harm, then how can we not excuse behavior that harms if we believe that the person was born with it? The pure DNA argument of behavior and actions espoused by many is stupid.
Logus on December 25, 2012 at 11:19 AM
The Lord of the Flies ( which will no longer apparently be required reading for freshmen high school students): the evil is us.
instead of overhauling our systems for psychiatric care and criminal justice ( and realizing that liberals have done untold damage to both), instead of focusing on the ways that sociopathic behavior is validated and even extolled in our culture ( such as a serial killer as the hero of a popular crime drama, Dexter), instead of asking why boys in particular growing up without a father figure so readily devolve into empathy devoid violence against others,instead of questioning how violence and lack of empathy in males is socially validated-let’s do a study that will tell us exactly zip, as was the intention. let’s make the tax payers pay for it too.
it’s a way to remove the guilt from the person who obviously committed the crime and the parents who appear to have abandoned him( the father) and let him fester untreated until it was beyond too late ( the mother). if the left doesn’t shift the blame to guns, they shift it to the victims and ‘society’ ( as in Columbine and the faux bullying narrative constructed by the media alone) and if they can’t do that- as with very small children- they go to biology. anything to make the actual criminal not responsible.
and that is called ‘social justice’. take away the guns that could stop a mass murderer or violent criminal- that’s called tyranny.
mittens on December 25, 2012 at 11:51 AM