Editor,
In his letter in the Daily Lobo on March 9, Benjamin Sanchez chose to turn a blind eye to a fundamental fact of nature: Human beings are unlike any other animal on the planet. This is because evolution has supplied us with a brain that allows us to rise above basic animal instinct. No other animal I'm aware of can choose not to mate; this fact alone makes us unique in nature and is one of the many ways we transcend our animal origins.
For animals, the choice of selection of a mate is based on fitness. This narrow and rigid selection criteria has been encoded by evolutionary processes and is instinctual - the animal has no ability to change the behavior that results from it.
For humans, the selection of a mate is also based on fitness, but we also have the ability to choose mates who appeal to us in ways that aren't based solely on genetically encoded standards of fitness.
We fall in love, and love transcends selection based on characteristics that an instinctual choice might mark as unfit. This includes the selection of mates of the same gender, different social groups, resources and abilities, based on feelings of love, not evolutionary programming. The capacity for love is part of the infinite variety that evolution has allowed us to experience.
Reducing human beings to gene containers and replicators emphasizes only a tiny part of the human condition and ignores many of the things that make us who we are, especially our capacity to love one another. These transcendent traits should be celebrated as core characteristics of what make us unique, both as individuals and as a species. These aspects of reality should also be considered when making judgments about our fellow human beings, both personally and legally.
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Greg Gomez
UNM staff member and student
