Sexual Desire is in Your Genes

[TechBear_Seattle]

Interesting science, with chilling implications given the Current Regime. The entire article follows, from http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060529/sc_space/studysexualdesireisinyourgenes

Your sexual desire or lack thereof could be in your genes, scientists announced today. The discovery might change how psychologists view sexuality.

The researchers found that individual differences in human sexual desire can be attributed to genetic variations. The study is the first to provide data to show that common variations in the sequence of DNA impact on sexual desire, arousal and function, the researchers said.

The scientists, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, examined the DNA of 148 healthy male and female university students and compared the results with questionnaires asking for the students' self-descriptions of their sexual desire, arousal and sexual function. They found a correlation between variants in a gene called the D4 receptor and the students' self-reports on sexuality.

The results suggest that low sexual desire might be a normal biological condition rather than a psychological problem, the researchers say. Further, it might be possible to develop drugs to alter sexual desire based on the new findings.

The research was led by Richard Ebstein and was published in the online version of the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

The chilling implications come in the possibility of using pharmaceuticals to alter sexual desire. How likely is that an aresol to greatly increase sexual desire would be used as a weapon of war? (It is known that both the US and Soviets looked for such a weapon that would "turn" opposing soldiers in to homosexuals.) How likely is it that drugs to lower sexual desire would be heavily promoted by Talibangelicals as a way to control teenagers? Could such drugs be the first step towards mandatory, involuntary medication of criminals, starting with sex offenders?

:tinfoilhat:

[htuttle]

1. In the interests of bringing greater decorum to the Science forum...

...I'm going to avoid the obvious pun about a sexy pair of genes.



Whoops.

[unpossibles]

14. nice. I love it.

[Warpy]

2. Most "psychological conditions" will eventually turn out to have a

physiological basis. Eventually we'll start to figure this stuff out and stop patting people on the head and handing them tranquilizers to make them go away while we silently blame them for their own problems.

We're just taking baby steps understanding the human genome, brain chemistry, and the effects both these things have on people. Once we understand them, we may be able to help people who got dealt a bad hand live a little fuller life. In any case, we can stop blaming them for not doing so.

Well, as long as we're not narrow and superstitious and believe in demonic possession.

[panader0]

3. Wasn't castration used on sex criminals until recently in this country?

[PublicWrath]

5. Yes, and not only on sex criminals. n/t

[Frustratedlady]

4. You said.........

"How likely is it that drugs to lower sexual desire would be heavily promoted..."

I believe they used salt peter during WWII to lower sexual desire of our own men to keep their minds off their own needs and on the war.

[patrice]

6. I don't understand why that is a surprise.

We are bio-chemical soup with different levels of seasoning that make some organismic tendencies more likely and some less and others less than that, depending to a significant extent upon other things like learning and environment, two other sets of physical factors.

[Teaser]

7. Depends on the jeans

and how they fit...

[nashville_brook]

8. correlation is not causation

i don't see "chilling implications" here. nor do i think this will "change the way psychologists view sexuality."

if indeed there is a correlation between D4 and sexual desire -- that's all there is. that correlation doesn't negate the last 100 years of psychological correlations such as abuse and trauma. just because there's a genetic expression of desire doesn't mean there's not other factors in the equation. also -- just because there's a genetic expression of sexual desire, doesn't mean that non-medical modalities can't help those with low desire.

it's irresponsible to say, "individual differences in human sexual desire can be attributed to genetic variations..." NO SIR! there might, at this time, be an ASSOCIATION -- but, not causation.

[Kailassa]

9. Wonderful !!! So we can throw out "abstinence education"

and just immunize all babies at birth against their own D4 receptors.

Now we just need to learn which genes cause aggression and how to turn them on whenever a new war is declared.

[skids]

10. More likely...

...the drugs will be used to raise sexual desire, if we follow the same mentality that brought us viagra and such -- that being that "low sexual desire" is the thing that is currently considered a "problem."

Frankly I'm no eunuch, but I really cannot fathom why a good deal of my friends are well beyond puberty and still completely obsessed when it comes to sex. I'd consider them to be the ones with the affliction.

[BR_Parkway]

11. Oh, it was a Hebrew medical center - that'll be the angle the KKKristians

come up with for blowing their "it's a choice and it's sinful and we must regulate it for them" approach to homosexuality right out of the water.

It's all part of the War on KKKristians (and somehow the Clenis will get a portion of the blame - perhaps those healthy university students would never have had sexual desires before the Blue Dress shattered the nation's morality or some such nonsense)

[rock]

12. If you don't have sexual desire

and engage in sex, chances are your children won't either ... oops! what children?

[eppur_se_muova]

17. Like the "hereditarily sterile" aliens on a certain campy SF TV show...nt

[sui generis]

13. so what's the difference to society between a homosexual and

a non-sexual? Is there a test or something?

Aren't they both equally "unnatural"? I say we don't let low-sex-drive people get married! Who's with me?

:sarcasm:


Things are what they are. "Normal" is not the norm. I think whoever is trying to weaponize sex-drive whichever way has some significant issues.

[BeFree]

15. I got my D4,

I'll show you mine, if you show me your's

Has anyone yet had their DNA tested when they were a baby, then tested again in later years to see if their DNA evolved?

[Tesha]

16. "And when I peed, I peed turquoise"

I did not sow, I did not spin,
And thanks to pills I did not sin.
I loved the crowds, the stink, the noise.
And when I peed, I peed turquoise.

I ate beneath a roof of orange;
Swung with progress like a door hinge.
'Neath purple roof I've come today
To piss my azure life away.

Virgin hostess, death's recruiter,
Life is cute, but you are cuter.
Mourn my pecker, purple daughter -
All it passed was sky-blue water.

from Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut

[realisticphish]

18. one study that shows correlation?

interesting, but hardly earth shattering. And it's not going to change much about the viewing of sexuality until the experiment has been repeated numerous times. Not ot mention that the study relied on self reports. That leaves a margin of error that needs to be allowed for shame, etc.