Ethical implications
Genomic research and studies of intelligence face four principal ethical concerns: the notion of biological determinism, the potential for discrimination and stigmatization, the question of ownership of information, and the emotional impact of knowledge about one's personal genomics and intelligence. These and other ethical issues are explored in detail by the programme of ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI), which is an integral part of the Human Genome Project70. Also, recent books discuss ethical as well as scientific issues about personal genomics specifically in relation to education71 and occupation72. Much of these ethical discussions focus on single-gene disorders, for example Huntington disease, which has 100% penetrance. By contrast, GPS are 'less dangerous’ because they are intrinsically probabilistic, not hard-wired and deterministic like single-gene disorders. It is important to recall here that although all complex traits are heritable, none is 100% heritable. A similar logic can be applied to IQ scores: although they have great predictive validity for key life outcomes1–6, IQ is not deterministic but probabilistic. In short, an individual is always more than the sum of their genes or their IQ scores.