Werner40.2

Biological Adaptation, Psychological
Adjustment, and Morality

The heterozygous argument has often been presented as the "sickle-cell" argument, in analogy with the well-known case of sickle-cell anemia. In malaria areas, individuals homozgyous for the sickle-cell die of sickle-cell anemia, and individuals homozygous for the absence of sickle-cell are more likely to die of malaria - so only heterozygous individuals pass on genes to the future. Now in the case of sickle-cell anemia we really are talking about an illness! No one wants to get sickle-cell anemia, and people die from it. "Illness" and "health" are defined in terms of individual well-being, and perhaps at times (e.g. psychopathic killers) in terms of social well-being. People do not need to pass on genes to be considered healthy. They need to feel themselves as healthy and happy, and to not cause harm to others. Certainly homosexuality should be considered "healthy." Arango's argument that homosexuality is "masochism" is also suspect, because it makes it sound as if our "real" selves are what we find in the innermost regions of the brain. But human nature is based on our whole brains. And of course all the different forms of human "love" (not just homosexual love) have their evolutionary history. I doubt very much whether Arango would reduce these forms of love to their homologues in ancestral fish!