Genetics and Genomic Medicine Research from the Social Sciences Perspectives

Abstract

This review examines the debate among scholars on what social change is brought about by genetic technologies and how the results of genetic research affect the language of social sciences. Firstly, the development of genetic technologies and their implementation in medical practice raise new ethical and legal challenges. For example, although some geneticists advocate clinical trials to edit the human embryo’s genome, these experiments are limited by ethical requirements and legal norms. In other words, there is a discrepancy between the development of genetic technologies and the collective ideas about the limits of genetic intervention in people’s lives. Secondly, genetic research claims to change the understanding of the human body, health, identity, biography and formulates a request for the reconstruction of established social science concepts such as kinship, race, or ethnicity. The criticism of biological reductionism, which explains the social world through biological processes, has led to the emergence of epigenetics – a field that studies the influence of environmental factors on genetic mechanisms and claims to rethink the dichotomies of biological–social, nature–nurture. Epigenetic research is changing the reasoning of social policy, establishing a special 'environmental' focus for explaining social issues. The increasing accessibility of genetic information leads to a particular perception of identity because individuals do not view themselves as an autonomous entity, but as bearers of certain genetic characteristics that link them to their families, ethnic groups, and people with similar genetic predispositions. Social institutions and practices resulting from the intromission of genetic research into everyday life are the subject of study for the social sciences.