Short? Blame your dad. Fat? Blame your mum, say scientists.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6154220.stm

Genes play a part in determining height and weight
Scientists have worked out which parent to blame if you are unhappy with your weight or height.
Fathers appear to determine the height of their child while mothers tend to influence how much body fat they will have, a study suggests.

It's funny, isn't it? A straightforward news item turns into a "blame yr parents" for something!

(Both our kids are tall and skinny, so I guess we're in the clear)

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 16 November 2006 17:30 (nineteen years ago)

Great. Too tall and too fat, I can blame both my parents! Hurrah!

― Little Star of Bedlam (kate), Thursday, 16 November 2006 17:34 (nineteen years ago)

Patently untrue in my case as I appear to be a clone of my paternal grandmother.

― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 16 November 2006 17:36 (nineteen years ago)

well the article isn't about CLONES

― LISTEN U TURBO CROUTON (TOMBOT), Thursday, 16 November 2006 17:42 (nineteen years ago)

I like the last paragraph that's like "and an EXTRA SPECIAL THANKS to our BRAVE LITTLE DADS, who were a little fickle at first but now they've earned a lollipop for their good behavior!"

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Thursday, 16 November 2006 17:45 (nineteen years ago)

It's inconclusive, Tom: phenotypic evidence would seem to confirm, but the state of reproductive tech ca 1975 suggests otherwise. Jury still out.

― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 16 November 2006 17:46 (nineteen years ago)

Holy crap: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6155200.stm

― === temporary username === (Mark C), Thursday, 16 November 2006 17:54 (nineteen years ago)

Bloody hell, that's fucked up.

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 16 November 2006 17:59 (nineteen years ago)

Jesus -- I hope they at least had the burden of proving it was an actual major negligent fuck-up on the doctor's part that made the thing not work, or disappear, or whatever it did. (E.g., I guess that verdict wouldn't be as shocking if the doctor just read a magazine for an hour and then went "oh yeah, I put the contraceptive device in, don't worry about it," but I sort of doubt that's what happened.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 16 November 2006 18:07 (nineteen years ago)

wouldn't the drug company be more at fault in this situation?

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 16 November 2006 18:23 (nineteen years ago)

So who do I blame if I'm stupid?

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 16 November 2006 18:26 (nineteen years ago)

hstencil

― === temporary username === (Mark C), Thursday, 16 November 2006 18:29 (nineteen years ago)

Hang on, that looks like a diss - it's not - I was just taking the opportunity to revive a dormant ILX meme :(

― === temporary username === (Mark C), Thursday, 16 November 2006 18:30 (nineteen years ago)

That's the odd part -- the article gives absolutely no information on what the cause of the, umm, malfunction was, even though you'd think that'd have been the central issue in court.

But Lauren, I'd imagine the drug company and their legal department are up-front enough about failure rates, potential risks, proper use, etc. to insulate themselves pretty well from being liable for failure.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 16 November 2006 18:33 (nineteen years ago)

no contraceptive is 100% safe, right? if she still has grounds to sue the dr it must have been some pretty obvious faulty installation.

― sunny successor agrees: gay dad always trumps slutty mom (katharine), Thursday, 16 November 2006 18:35 (nineteen years ago)

true. i was thinking hypothetically, but in reality the doctor is going to be a LOT easier to sue than big pharma.

xpost

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 16 November 2006 18:35 (nineteen years ago)

i'm a bit shocked that she'd have the kid in the first place. i know
it's pointless to speculate on something like this, but i can't help it. the whole thing is so bizarre.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 16 November 2006 18:38 (nineteen years ago)

The kid is going to have fucking issues when (s)he grows up and discovers this little nugget - that's for sure!

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 16 November 2006 18:45 (nineteen years ago)

i'm a bit shocked that she'd have the kid in the first place.
me, too.

― horseshoe (horseshoe), Thursday, 16 November 2006 18:46 (nineteen years ago)

but my dad is like 6'7"

― wordy rappinghood (roxymuzak), Thursday, 16 November 2006 18:56 (nineteen years ago)

my dad is short, my mom is thin, i am tallish and fat. WHAT GIVES, GOD?

― i've dreamt of rubies! (Mandee), Thursday, 16 November 2006 19:29 (nineteen years ago)

Giving unwanted child up for adoption v getting a total stranger to pay for the kid all the way through childhood (plus maintenance from father - it says he's getting compensation, not that he's totally absolved of all responsibility)? What would you do?

There *must* be more to it than what that story tells you.

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 16 November 2006 20:13 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I think so too but then I prefer to believe people are not money hungry vile people. Maybe she figured: Well, I wanted a baby. Let's pretend I didn't want it and let the doc pay for it.

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Thursday, 16 November 2006 20:19 (nineteen years ago)

Hold up: can someone give me a bit of a genetics refresher course on this one? Because I can understand how you isolate parental heredity for boys, but this doesn't entirely make sense to me for girls. They're getting one X chromosome from either parent: why would one dominate for one factor (height) and the other for another (weight)? [I know the article is just, like, measuring and weighing and correlating with the parents' height and weight, not actually digging into the genetics of it ... but what gives?]

Compare with like Laurel's statement up top, which makes more sense to me: her paternal grandmother passes on the sole X chromosome to her father; her father passes on an X chromosome to her (obviously).

Am I misunderstanding, or misremembering my high-school biology here? It seems like the only time you should have really clear one-parent dominance on things like this is for (a) boys, and (b) traits influenced by that part of the X chromosome that's not matched by the Y.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 16 November 2006 20:23 (nineteen years ago)

Doesn't environment more influence on turning fat/skinny? I would assume so.

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Thursday, 16 November 2006 20:27 (nineteen years ago)

That "what would you do?" was a hypothetical question to the ladiez of ILE, by the way, though it does look like I'm saying "well, duh, no-brainer = free income and you get a kid too, huzzah!"

If I really didn't want a kid, I doubt a couple of hundred quid a month would sway me into keeping it. And if you find yourself accidentally pregnant despite using contraception, then, yeah, shit, these things happen, deal with it. And not by suing someone for the upkeep of the kid. Way to create issues!

I am taller than my dad and thinner than my mum. I call shenanigans on this "science" (xxpost to Nabisco, I have no idea about these things at all, but that sounds kind of right. Biology expert to thread!)

xpost, Nathalie, there are genetic factors too, see every "I'm not fat, I'm just big-boned" excuse ever

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 16 November 2006 20:29 (nineteen years ago)

"Mother has more influence on weight" correlates with "mother far more likely to be the one shopping/cooking for everyone?"

P.S. I don't think we should be too shocked that she went ahead and had this child -- abortion will always be a pretty serious, significant act for most people, and once you're actually pregnant I think a whole lot of new emotions and experiences and ways of thinking are bound to crop up, to the point where it's not nearly as simple as "I didn't want a kid when I got the contraceptives, therefore I do not want a kid now"; it's gonna be a whole different matter when you feel your body actually doing stuff, and you stop thinking about the abstract "do I want a child now" and start thinking about the specific "here's a potential child, right here, right now, and why do I / don't I want it?"

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 16 November 2006 20:35 (nineteen years ago)

But when the answer is "because someone else is doing the financial assistance", then it's a whole other kettle of fish. Why sue? Why make a great big life-changing legal point of going "I didn't want this kid and it's YOUR FAULT I'VE GOT IT!" unless having some extra money is the deciding factor? Contraception fails. Shit happens.

(this is a teensy bit simplistic, I know)

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 16 November 2006 20:39 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, that's definitely the weird part -- claiming the doctor has subjected her to a great burden or harm when there's something she could have done to greatly minimize that harm. I'd assume she either (A) has serious qualms with abortion, personally, if not politically; (B) was really angry about getting poor treatment, and got all "something must be done" about it; or (C) is just conventionally opportunistic, in that way that people get whenever any kind of authority lets them down. (B and C are obviously related here.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 16 November 2006 21:01 (nineteen years ago)

So if I like being short is it OK to thank my father rather than blame him?

― shorty (shorty), Friday, 17 November 2006 04:51 (nineteen years ago)

I agree with Ailsa on that court case. There's also similar cases here ...

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Friday, 17 November 2006 06:39 (nineteen years ago)

It's also possible that she didn't realise she was pregnant until it was too late to have the abortion? It sounds like a long shot, but a lot of other things can explain symptoms, and if she had recently started a new job, well, changes in circumstances can explain a change/stoppage in menstrual cycle, which would be the most obvious sign. It would be especially easy for you to explain these things to yourself if you had, for example, just had a patch implanted that stopped you from getting pregnant.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 17 November 2006 07:09 (nineteen years ago)

http://phonogram.us/images/viewpoint/george/george6.jpg

― timmy tannin (pompous), Friday, 17 November 2006 07:23 (nineteen years ago)

Accentmonkey, there's still adoption as an option if there's no way you can countenance the change in lifestyle that goes with having a baby and abortion isn't an option. Any number of people end up with unwanted children, they don't all have the "luxury" of getting to take money off people to support it. And it's not like she didn't actively go pursuing someone to blame and therefore compensate her for the inconvenience.

This is just boggling my own mind, because I'm not really down with this so-called "blame culture". Also, what if she'd lost her case?

― ailsa (ailsa), Friday, 17 November 2006 09:18 (nineteen years ago)

I bet there are some terse stares in Short Round's household this week.

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 17 November 2006 09:50 (nineteen years ago)

Is it that easy to give a baby up for adoption?

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Friday, 17 November 2006 09:52 (nineteen years ago)

It's not *easy* but it's an option which due consideration is given to, in the UK at least (no idea about Germany). Any easier than raising a child you don't want?

― ailsa (ailsa), Friday, 17 November 2006 09:58 (nineteen years ago)

(this really should be another thread, shouldn't it?)

― ailsa (ailsa), Friday, 17 November 2006 10:01 (nineteen years ago)

I know, I was just... I don't know how it is. In the past I'd always say: Just adopt! But how does it really work?

Nathalie, there are genetic factors too, see every "I'm not fat, I'm just big-boned" excuse ever

Heh. :-) I guess, but I think that genetics have far less *weight* in this than upbringing.

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Friday, 17 November 2006 10:03 (nineteen years ago)

In the UK you discuss it with the hospital and with social services and it takes a while, but it does happen and it does work.

(groan at that appalling pun, by the way. I had to check myself out of using "if you can't *conceive* of bringing up the child yourself" or something upthread)

― ailsa (ailsa), Friday, 17 November 2006 10:12 (nineteen years ago)

My parents short and fat, me tall and slim?

― not-goodwin (not-goodwin), Friday, 17 November 2006 10:17 (nineteen years ago)

Lolz my dad is 5'10", I'm 6'4"!

This definitely not true for my family, there are no tall people on my dad's side, a few well over 6' on my mum's. Tall genes must come from mum.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Friday, 17 November 2006 10:30 (nineteen years ago)

Aha! He's not your daddy!

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Friday, 17 November 2006 10:40 (nineteen years ago)

Asshole? Blame your uncle.

― Bobby Ganush (Uri Frendimein), Friday, 17 November 2006 10:42 (nineteen years ago)

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