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The Language of the GenesAlmost all cases arise from new mutations and are born to parents who had no idea of the risk. The gene has been found. Any pregnancy in which the child appears to be growing slowly is monitored. At first, to find that the growth problem was due only to achondroplasia was seen by doctors as useful reassurance to the parents. Many physicians were alarmed to find that the response was often to demand a termination. Now, some centres do not reveal the results — but who has the right to conceal the truth? Achondroplasia is a reminder that genes involve people as much as DNA. That lesson has been learned again and again. The first attempts to use the new knowledge ran into difficulties because they ignored social realities. A search for carriers of the sickle-cell gene in the American black community thirty years ago led to great bitterness. Although carriers are quite healthy except in conditions of extreme oxygen shortage (which few experience) some states made screening compulsory. Those carrying one copy of the mutation were discriminated against in jobs and for insurance ...» |
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