1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
2 male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
3 And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:
4 and the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:
– Genesis
Over at National Geographic Virginia Hughes has a very interesting follow up to her feature in Matter, Uprooted. It told the story of a woman who finds out that the man who she thought was her biological father was not, an her attempt using genetic genealogy to attempt to find blood kin. The ultimate ending was bittersweet, as the protagonist found a friend, but not a sister. But spoiler alert, it turns out that she did in fact find out who her father was! Nevertheless, not everyone was appreciative of the ending. Here is the first comment:
I don’t really understand why people do these things. This story worked out well enough, but it could have worked out very badly indeed, given the superstitious excitement some people have about ‘blood’. If someone was not part of one’s life in the world, even by report, then it seems to me they’re totally irrelevant.
This is a common sentiment. But the reality is it doesn’t really reflect much of our experience in revealed preferences. It’s common for many people, especially when they are young, to assert that there are so many children that need families that they’ll adopt. If I check on Facebook all the people who asserted this it turns out most of them ended up having biological children. There are practical reasons one can make for this in terms of one’s own life. Many traits are highly heritable, such as intelligence and personality, and children who are somewhat more like are easier to relate to. But this is really rationalization. Having biological children is a deeply human thing, selected for by evolutionary processes as a basic tautology. Those who lack this impulse do not flourish over the generations.
The whole reflex to dismiss biological ties as ‘superstition’ reminds me of something I saw on Facebook several years ago. A medical doctor of my acquaintance posted about “National Infertility Awareness Week”, and one of his “friends” decided to comment that he didn’t feel infertility was something to be sad about, seeing as anyone could adopt. This is again not a line of discussion that’s going to lead to reasoned argument. Obviously as a family we haven’t had to face infertility, but when you have children at an older age it’s someone you do think about it, and you are much more aware of the trauma and strain it causes in those who have experienced it. To just tell these people to adopt may seem “rational,” but actually it’s callous.
Ultimately it comes down to the facile assumption by some that they can reduce what the “Good Life” is to a few spare axioms and then infer for the rest of the human race what they should want. My post Against Vulgar Mohism for Our Age argues that attempts to reduce these sorts of highly textured and complex life decisions to rational elements of manipulable utilitarian algebras is futile and inhumane. Sometimes it is just best to smile and be happy for someone when they reach the end of a long hard road toward fulfillment, even if it isn’t your particular cup of tea.
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