Thank you for asking this question! I cringe every time that
these words are used incorrectly. To make it clear;
Genetic ≠ Inherited
First of all, not everything inherited is genetic.
People can inherit things external to their bodies –
like land and money. According to Merriam-Webster’s
dictionary, inherit means “to receive from an ancestor”.
“Genetic” refers to genes, information encoded
in our DNA. Now, we do get our DNA from our parents so that
must mean genetic things are always inherited, right? Well,
no. Although we do inherit most of our mutations from our
parents – they had them and passed them to us –
we can acquire mutations throughout our lifetime. For example,
sun-worshippers will gain mutations in their skin cells due
to sun exposure. If these mutations are in the right genes,
they will get skin cancer – they did not receive the
mutations from their parents but acquired these mutations
through their lifetime. Therefore, their skin cancer would
be due to genetic changes, but it was not inherited.
Unfortunately, many people – who have obviously not
visited this site – don’t understand the subtle,
but important, difference between these two terms. Case in
point: If you look up ‘inherited’ in online dictionaries,
‘genetic’ is often listed as a synonym. This may
be because people use the terms incorrectly so the dictionaries
have listed the common uses, not the correct definitions.
March 2009
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