What if a Darwin Award nominee has reproduced?
|
"Since a qualifier for DA candidacy is that the applicant "remove himself (gender inclusive) from the gene pool, it follows logically that once one is removed from the gene pool, one will not reproduce further. This subsequent lack of reproduction is an after-effect of the qualifying event.
Therefore nominees with offspring still qualify by virtue of the fact that they will not contribute further." Cardinal Fang
|
Is he or she automatically disqualified if he has offspring? Since genetic and environmental factors both play a role in determining our choices and behaviors, I will discuss each as a source of potential Darwin Award candidates, before answering the question.
A concrete example will help illuminate the discussion. Imagine the sole reason a man wins a Darwin Award is because he has the hypothetical Explosive Stupidity gene, a gene that causes him to ignore the potential downside of playing with bombs. The man who possesses this imaginary gene tends to minimize potential dangers by rationalizing that he is "good with explosives" and will not be harmed. No matter how many hours of film footage he sees showing flying body parts, and no matter how many friends he knows who were injured in explosions, he will never be convinced that he is anything but "good with explosives" and beyond harm's reach.
So one day he blows himself up playing Russian roulette with a land mine, like the three fellows you'll read about in "Fatal Footsie," and his son is left to bury the ashes.
The Explosive Stupidity son inherited half of his father's genes and half of his mother's. The son can be thankful that he has only a fifty percent chance of possessing Dad's fatal Explosive Stupidity gene. Since children have a good chance of not carrying a particular parental gene, the presence of offspring will not disqualify the Explosive Stupidity man from winning a Darwin Award.
Genetic contributions, however, are only part of the story. Our environment also plays a role in risk-taking behavior. This dichotomy is known as the "nature vs. nurture" controversy, and professors regularly air competing opinions on the subject. Let's see how environmental factors might figure into a Darwin Awar
