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I just watched the Ellen show I recorded earlier today, towards the end of the show she had on a dad and his little girl-maybe 2 or 3 . For some reason the little girl was flipping water bottles- but that's beside my point. The dad was saying both he and his wife had genetic testing done and they each carry a gene for cystic fibrosis. Sure enough their son was born with cystic fibrosis- (now get this) but because it was their "dream" to have a little girl they decided to give it another go- and sure enough they got the little girl................ with cystic fibrosis.!!! Are you kidding me??? How could you purposely GAMBLE on handing your child a death sentence? How on earth could parents play Russian roulette with a childs' life just because "it was their dream"? *********r dreams! How about the childs' quality of life?? I just can't follow the logic here- what's the purpose of genetic testing if you just ignore it?
Well there is a wide variety in the severity of the disease and depending on the genetics may have been 100% or much lower percentage wise on the possibility it passed to the kids. I didn't watch the episode so not sure what the specifics were.
There are people that can live into their 70's and kids that die in their teens. Average is 37 years old.
So your outrage over it isn't really anything I'd agree with. Some how I don't think you'd walk up to someone with the disease and tell them they'd be better off not being born. I'm pretty sure they'd disagree if you did. I can certainly understand people that might make the decision to not have a child over it, I can understand that some people might roll the dice on it as there are MUCH more severe diseases out there that are real death sentences.
Irrespective of the particular situation on the show (I didn't see the show), I do know that many parents have genetic testing on themselves or on the baby while they are pregnant for a variety of reasons.
Depending on the genetic disease or the parents specific circumstances, it could be to terminate the pregnancy, or to just know and have enough time to prepare themselves to parent a different child than they had dreamt of, or to get their ducks in a row including any medical needs like making sure you deliver at appropriate hospitals.
It's just difficult to know what each parent is thinking as they make their decision. Heck, it's difficult to even know what one would do unless they are faced with having to make that decision.
Cystic fibrosis is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern so for each pregnancy wth two carrier parents, the is just a 25% that the child would have CF. The only way to test and diagnose the baby with CF while pregnant is to do a CVS or an Amniocentesis test. These tests on their own do carry real albeit rare risks of miscarriage that some parents may choose not to do either of these tests given that many people wth CF do go on to have somewhat of a normal life depending on their severity. There are many more severe genetic diseases out there
I knew a woman that had a brother that died of MS when he was 21. She had a son with it that also died about the same age and two girls taking the chance that she would produce more boys with the disease. I was young at the time but remember that no one understood how one could watch their brother suffer and die and risk watching their own children go through the same thing. Frankly, the best I could remember is that they were "religious" and not too bright, not that those two are related, but neither helped them make a decision based on the children they would bear. I believe the girls may have become "carriers".
I knew a woman that had a brother that died of MS when he was 21. She had a son with it that also died about the same age and two girls taking the chance that she would produce more boys with the disease.
MS? Multiple sclerosis? It is not a genetically transmitted disease, in the traditional sense (e.g. not like cystic fibrosis, which is inherited directly from parents who are carriers), and it is rare for someone to even have symptoms at 21, let alone die. Maybe you are thinking of something else?
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