Playing Card People

I wrote this for an application to show my writing skill. I don't know if it's very good, but if you read this could you let me know? I wanted to test it out here to see if it's good enough to submit.

Oh, I was given a choice of 5 topics so I included the topic I chose, so you'll understand.

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4. With respect to the nature versus nurture debate, compare and contrast the roles of intrinsic and environmental factors in human development.

Parents in this day and age have the luxury of being able to know the gender of their child long before that baby is born. Some parents can even weed out the offspring that might hold genetic anomalies and possible debilitating diseases. Likewise, parents can give their babies over to be raised by others in more prosperous homes if they choose to. With the ability to genetically and environmentally improve the life of the child, the question of nature vs. nurture must be considered.

There is absolute evidence that many psychological problems stem from child abuse or poor environment and upbringing. Abused children that pass that abuse on to younger or more defenseless children and children that direct the abuse inwards and become self-annihilators, these are mere shadows of the many unfortunate possibilities that lie before children in horrendous upbringings. Many of the most notorious murderers and malevolent maniacs were raised in conditions like these. And tragically there are thousands and thousands of children subjected to this torturous lifestyle and victimized every year.

Of course, the fact that genetics play a vital role in the person that baby will become is undeniable. There are many cases of identical twins separated from birth that have the same habits, dispositions, and even favorite foods. That provides legitimate reasoning that some things really are written in our genetic code. Some these genetic disorders, however, can cripple children from birth, make them suffer intensely throughout their lives, or simply die within hours of their birth. These disorders can sometimes be detected in prenatal scans and thorough fertility consultation.

Both sides balance out their lacks with blaming the other side. What the nurture side can't explain becomes genetic anomaly, what the nature side can't explain becomes poor diet or irresponsible raising. Yet, with technology constantly advancing, our knowledge of what corresponds to what on a double helix chain is also advancing. With the fields of social-work and psychology also expanding we may, eventually, come to a complete and fully functional way of raising children. But we may never understand just what balance of which can make a killer and which can make a self-sacrificing altruist.

Therefore, an awareness and vigilance of both must be the upmost important factor in the breeding of future generations. Here's an example: Think of a playing card, on one side is the face of the card and on the back is the deck's pattern. This is kind of representative of the human condition. On the face we have nurture, we can recognize the Q for Queen like we could recognize an abusive or loving home. On the other side is nature, the mysterious pattern of the deck that represents the unreadable, indecipherable genetic code embedded into every person. There is no card without two sides. Similarly, in humans there is no person without genetics or without a history. We must see both sides to know whether a particular card belongs to a certain deck or suit.