If We Inherited Traits...

First I would like to start by giving the definition of the word “gene” just as Richard Dawkins described it in his book. He uses the definition of G.C Williams and it goes as follows: “any portion of chromosomal material that potentially last for enough generations to serve as a unit of natural selection. “  (Pg. 28) Genes are the ones that enable any organism to live, survive and evolve. They are one of the most important parts of natural selection, because without genes, nothing will be passed on. Now, what exactly do genes pass on? Dawkins mentions that” each new generation starts from scratch.“ (pg 23) By this we can conclude that Lamarck’s theory of inheritance of acquired traits is false. The genes carry physical characteristics such as hair or eye color, but what a human being acquires during his or her life time, is not passed on to the off springs. This does not happen in human or any other organism of the planet. But this is not news to anybody. Lamarck´s theory was disproven long ago by Darwin´s theory of evolution. Never the less it popped some questions in my head. What would happen if we did in fact inherit the traits that our parents acquired during their lifetime? In some cases this could be good, but in others it couldn´t. One clear example is the loss of a limb. Let´s say that a mother had an addiction to heroin, and one time, the needle that she used was infected and her arm had to be cut off. It would be very awful if the off spring had to suffer the consequences of the mother´s action and be born without an arm. In other cases, it would not be that tragic. For instance, let’s say that the father developed diabetes when he was young. Fortunately the doctors were able to cure him, but this is a disease that is inherited. It would be great that because the father was cured, then the off spring would not have the diseases. This would be a great consequence of inheritance of traits, but in my opinion, if this were to happen, much more negative traits would be inherited that positive. I really like that all the generations can start from scratch, because it give them the opportunity to build the life they want.