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Tonight Channel 4 will be screening an extraordinary documentary called, ‘Hitler’s DNA: Blueprint of a Dictator.’ Its makers have been able to locate a patch of material from the sofa where Adolf Hitler took his own life in May 1945, and from a tiny trace of blood, they say they have sequenced the DNA of the man most people consider to be the embodiment of evil.

It can’t be denied that the results are fascinating. A deletion in a gene suggests that Hitler had Kallmans syndrome which can cause delayed puberty, meaning that the well-known song about the tyrant’s sexual organs may have had a ring of truth to it. Those who have analysed the DNA also suggest he had a heightened susceptibility to a range of neurological conditions including schizophrenia, autism and bipolar disorder.

It's all very interesting, but for me there are serious risks to such an analysis if people start to jump to the simplistic conclusion that Hitler’s DNA accounts for his actions and decisions. I’ve already seen comments online suggesting that his alleged sexual problems or his possible personality disorders explain his appalling tyranny and the destruction that his actions unleashed on the world.
Not only does such speculation stigmatise those who live with the same conditions as Hitler may have done, almost all of whom are decent and moral people. But as the ingenuity of the science in this field increases and as people become more interested in looking into their own genetic history, there is a growing danger of genetic determinism.

Some people may be led to believe that the person you are and choices you make are somehow preordained by a genetic disposition over which you have little or no personal control. Not only are such conclusions bad science, they also have moral consequences because they strip a person of responsibility for their own actions.

Christians have always held that the human person is infinitely more complex than that. The Bible speaks of human life as beautiful and dignified: we are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image and likeness of God. It is also powerfully aware of the human instinct for greed, conflict and hatred which unmakes that which God has so beautifully made. Jesus is clear that each person is responsible for their own actions and decisions and will be held to account for them. That’s why Christians like me rely on the forgiveness he offers.

Human beings are not robots. Never mind how hard we try, human life will never be predictable or fully explicable either by geneticists or theologians. And personally I am rather glad it’s like that.

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