The conversation involving Dr. Condic, Dr. Giesting and Schmitt turned to the complexities of the nation’s debate about abortion. That debate engages a mix of biological facts (which may or may not be probed in the full context of updated knowledge), personal experiences, and deeply held principles, positions, and emotions including authentic sympathy for the circumstances in which pregnant women find themselves. Although providing scientific insights is a crucial advancement of the debate because people deserve to have comprehensive information, the laying out of certain biological facts alone will not necessarily change minds, Condic said.
In many cases, much of the public presentation of the abortion controversy dividing people is manufactured, but there is room for honest discussion on particular grounds. We each can play a part in adding to human understandings in this controversy. People evolve their judgments on the wide scope of the debate incrementally over time.
But the search for a full overview is complicated; indeed, Dr. Condic referred to difficulties she and her brother Samuel Condic encountered (different vocabularies, etc.) in compiling their book Human Embryos, Human Beings. The book aims to bring together philosophical and biological insights about human life at its beginning. In short, the abortion debate requires us to spend more time in listening to each other, asking questions, probing the basis of people’s stances, and less time in simply lecturing, she said.
Paul talked about his experience with identical twins in his family. Twinning is a complex arena for understanding “who you are,” raising core questions with biological and philosophical implications. Our discussion around the microphone extended to research on the topics of compaction and chimeras. Condic has written a book that delves into the complexities. Untangling Twinning is scheduled for publication this summer.
There are also biological phenomena complicating an understanding of our human nature in sexual terms. There can be complex factors differentiating between one’s genetic sex and one’s hormonal sex, Condic said. A very small segment of the population has genetically compound sexual identities. Intersex disorders can occur in a variety of ways, although in the vast majority of cases questions of a person’s gender identity are not grounded in physical causes, Condic said. Studies in some areas raise questions within the LGBTQ community itself. Among many, endeavors focusing on a “gay gene” that would undergird a statement that “I was born this way” have been diminished by a view that gender identity is fluid or is driven by non-genetic factors.
Episode 072 - Benjamin Rybicki
Episode 071 - Sonsoles de Lacalle
Episode 070 - Nicanor Austriaco
Episode 069 - Fr. Lawrence Machia OSB and Daniel vanden Berk, part II
Episode 068 - Fr. Lawrence Machia OSB and Daniel vanden Berk, part I
Episode 066 - Maureen Condic, part II
Episode 065 - Maureen Condic, part I
Episode 064 - SCS 2019 Panel, part II
Episode 063 - SCS 2019 Panel, part I
Bonus - Quick Hits - SCS 2019
Episode 062 - Jonathan Lunine SCS Conference Preview
Episode 061 – Preview of SCS Conference 2019
Episode 060 – What Does It Mean To Be Human? (SCS 2019)
Episode 059 – Origin Story: Society of Catholic Scientists
Episode 058 – Let’s Act Like We’re on the Winning Side (Since We Are)
Episode 057 – The Best Thing Out There
Episode 056 - Darcia Narvaez on the (other) tragedy of the commons and moral/economic disengagement in civilized society
Episode 055 - Darcia Narvaez on socialization and isolation
Episode 054 - TSSM Season 2
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