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From: elliston@rob.UUCP ( Keith Elliston)
Newsgroups: sci.research,talk.politics.misc,sci.bio
Subject: Re: Gene pool
Summary: I shouldn't get involved... but...
Message-ID: <336@rob.UUCP>
Date: 8 Feb 89 17:36:59 GMT
References: <674@intvax.UUCP> <9091@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <1755@tank.uchicago.edu>
Organization: MSDRL, Merck & Co.,Inc., Rahway, NJ
Lines: 65

In article <1755@tank.uchicago.edu>, ogil@tank.uchicago.edu (Brian W. Ogilvie) writes:
> In article <9091@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> sethg@athena.mit.edu (Seth Gordon) writes:
> >
> >BEING DISABLED IS *NOT* IMMORAL.  
> >
> >Therefore, 
> >
> >BEARING CHILDREN WHO ARE DISABLED IS *NOT* IMMORAL.
> >
> >: Seth Gordon / MIT Brnch., PO Box 53, Cambridge, MA 02139
> 
> This doesn't follow. While it is not immoral to be blind, it is immoral
> to blind someone.
> 
> -- 
> Brian W. Ogilvie  /  ogil@tank.uchicago.edu


I know that this discussion is rather heated, but I wanted to put in my
$0.02 worth.

I am NOT an Eugenecist (sp??), but I do feel that we have been weakening
the Gene Pool by increasing our medical expertise.  That is, we have allowed
people who are harboring increasing doses of "bad" genes to survive to the
age where they reproduce.  The best example of this (at least, the best that
comes to mind) is the case of hemophilia.  Hemophilia is an X-linked recessive
(well, not completely recessive) trait.  When present in a female as a 
homozygouts set, it causes hemophilia.  This had, before the invent of Factor VIII and

(of course, no homozygous recessive females occurred before hemphiliac males
came onto the scene.....)
 
other such treatments, been fatal at an early age.  When male children were
born with the hemophilia gene on their X (due to a carrier female), they too
died at an early age.  Thus, the occurrance of Hemophilia remained fairly
low.  Now, since all (almost all, at least before AIDS) hemophiliacs survive,
both male and female.  So, when only hemophiliac males occured, and then died,
we had no Hemophiliac (true hemophiliac) females.  there was simply no way
for them to get 2 doses of the hemophilia gene (ok... no "normal way", I am
not including duplications and other fun genetic phenomena ).

Any way, the crux of the situation is.... we now have hemphiliac females 
(both X's carry the gene) and hemophiliac males (their X carries the gene),
and the occurrence of hemophilia (and the representation of the hemophilia
gene in the gene pool) is increasing.  Exactly what it will level off at is
unknown.  

I dont advocate any sort of sterilization or anything for folks carrying
genetic diseases, but I do promote the idea that we should accept the
responsibility for the determination of the genetic makeup of our offspring.
That is... if I found that I had (or carried) a genetic disease that would
affect my children (hemophilia for example), I would simply not have 
children.  I would actively consider artificial insemination for my spouse,
assuming that she was genetically ok.  I dont think that we can make such
decisions for others, but we can make them for ourselves.  And, I think that
we owe it to future generations, to make these types of decisions, based on
good information.  "Know thyself...." can be extended to .. "Know thy genes".
Any intelligent person should be considering his/her genetic makeup when
thinking of having children.

So... those are my $0.02 worth...  Go ahead and flame away!!!!

Keith

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