Introduction: The Secret of Life

This chapter outlines the debates over the genetic origins of human nature which form the wider context of the literature discussed in this book. It traces the rise of gene-centric neo-Darwinism in the late twentieth century and its mediation by popular science books which made claims about the causes of human behaviour which directly challenged humanistic values. It explores the ways in which novelists responded to this challenge, at a time when the arts and social sciences espoused social constructivism and were opposed to any biological account of human nature. It then considers the factors which have brought about a rapprochement between literature and biology, as genetic determinism has been supplanted by a post-genomic perspective which emphasizes the openness of the genome to environmental factors, while twenty-first century writers and philosophers increasingly represent humans and the environment as mutually constitutive.

Who counts as a parent for the purposes of filial obligations?

<p>I argue that using a traditional biological account of parenthood causes problems for determining who counts as a parent for the purposes of filial obligations in alternative family structures. I then argue that a better way to understand parenthood is as a role. People who fill the role of parents are parents, regardless of their biological ties to a child. Next, I argue that children can have more than two parents and so can have filial obligations to more than two people. I then demonstrate that understanding parenthood as a role allows us to correctly account for who should be a parent in cases of adoption, surrogacy, and extended families. In the final section I discuss three related worries about allowing a child to have more than two parents.</p>