you want to a child, would you want yourself and your spouse tested for the cystic fibrosis allele.?

Question

if both of you were found to carry a harmful recessive allele, how would you decide with this decision?

Answer 1

My personal opinion is that we should stongly think about aborting the feotus, especially if the test is done early enough, with any recessive inherited genetic disease.

That way, for future generations, we are irradicating the genetic diseases from the gene pool.

CF is a bit of a special case, however, as CF sufferers (ie double recessive alleles) are infertile, and so cant pass on the 'harmful' allele as you put it. But, if we did still test for this, in my opinion we should still abort carriers and sufferers. Sufferers because you might as well have a non-sufferer born, by aborting a sufferer, so that no one is born with CF, its hardly a desirable trait. Carriers because, of course, we dont want to pass on the CF gene.

The same would be true for all other inherited genetic diseases, even more so in the fact that most sufferers (double recessive alleles) are fertile with most genetic diseases.

I think it is important to point out, aswell, that I am a CF sufferer my self, diagnosed at 2 weeks old, I am now 19, and still hold my view points. I am not saying I want to die, but I am saying that I wouldn't want people to be through what I have been through, when there is no need to. I also feel that if the abortion is done young enough, the baby is not conscious, and most certainly does NOT feel pain, and so there is nothing lost: just an empty baby shaped biological organsim. Yes, it *could* have become a human, but at that stage it wasn't, and so in my opinion no 'murder' or similar has taken place.

Anywho, feel free to mail me

Ashley

EDIT: I know us answerers aren't really meant to comment on other answers.. ..but:

Purplegirl: everyone knows what the chances are, its simple stuff, and I'd bet my bottom dollar (if I was American) that Ericka knows the percentages too. But, rather than just moaning, I am going to point out that you cant have 2 CF parents, as CF sufferers are almost invariably sterile, as I said above. And, it doesn't even remotely answer the question.

Bad Guppy: Yes, you are right, the parents would have to be strong enough to cope and whatnot, however, if we can stop a child being born with CF, why dont we? You dont even mention the suffering the child will have to go through. Yes, medicine has advanced a lot in the past few decades for CF sufferers, (30 years ago most CF sufferers didn't live past 10), but still a lot of pain and suffering (if I am not being too dramatic) has to be gone through, and it can NEVER be cured (of course).

And, most CF people cant go to 'support groups', because the risk of cross-infection from fellow CF sufferers is too high: once you have many respiratory infections, you can never get rid of them. A huge percentage of sufferers continually suffer from pseaudomonas aeroginosa infections (as do I), and that is normally managable. However, its cousin, psuedomonas cepacia is much more infections and harmful, and many sufferers also have that, which is why contact between patients is kept to a minimum (well, no contact).

Also, lastly, I dont think ericka is actually having a baby tested for CF, she is just asking (if I am correct), in terms of either general quiery or for school.

Well, as I said, I'm happy to hear from people, feel free to mail me.

Answer 2

It would be a personal decision.
If one parent had one copy of the allele, the baby wouldn't have cystic fibrosis, but there would be a 50% chance that they would be a carrier. If each parent had a copy, there is a 25% chance that the baby would have cystic fibrosis, a 50%chance the baby would be a carrier, and a 25% chance the baby would have two good alleles. If one parent had cystic fibrosis and one didn't have the allele, the child would be a carrier. If both parents had cystic fibrosis, the child would have cystic fibrosis. If neither parent has the allele for cystic fibrosis, the child won't have cystic fibrosis.

Answer 3

if there were the possibility of producing a child with CF, many factors would be involved. primarily, would the parents be strong enough emotionally, financially, and strong enough in their marriage to care for a child with CF. family support and community support would also be a factor, such as available family members (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents) to help give respite care, and available community resources to provide assistance, such as support groups and nearness of medically available treatments. with all of this in mind (b/c there is a 1 in 4 chance of producing a child with CF), if you feel you are capable of caring for a child with CF, go ahead and try. I won't judge whether you want to abort a fetus with CF as this is not my decision to make. I wouldn't do it personally due to religious beliefs, but i'm not you. if these other possibilities are not within your comfort zone, i would suggest adoption.

Answer 4

i certainly would want to know, indeed.

(just as a side note, though, i would never want to abort my baby as a result of whatever those tests indicate)..