Curing promiscuity

Swedish scientists recently found a gene that affects a man’s ability to be monogamous, said Olivia Judson in The New York Times, and that discovery leads to a “mischievous thought.” If scientists can tweak the mating patterns of voles and mice by splicing in the monogamy gene, maybe they’ll some day concoct “love potions and pills” to cure sexual “restlessness.”

At the very least someone should come up with a screening test for the gene, said Ariel Leve in The Times of London. Think how much time a “sexual fidelity test” would save for women in search of a faithful partner. Failing that, maybe science can “explain why women have it in their DNA to be drawn to emotionally unavailable men.”

Manipulating the “genetic mutation” that makes men cheat would certainly change the nature of marriage, said Susan Reimer in the Baltimore Sun, “not to mention country music.” And science may be our only hope. True monogamy is rare among species, dashing the dreams of women looking “longingly at nature for some comfort.”

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