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The BBC discusses some interesting research
"They say their research, published in the journal Nature, has the potential to help mothers with rare genetic disorders have healthy children.
The aim is to prevent damaged DNA in mitochondria - the "batteries" which power the cell - from being passed on by the mother.
IVF clinics are not currently permitted to carry out the procedure. "
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So you can breathe easier. You won't see twins looking like Danny and Arnold any time soon.
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From the article: "Sharon Bernardi, aged 44, from Sunderland, inherited mitochondrial disease from her mother. The condition has claimed the lives of six of her children, all of them dying within a few days of birth.
Her only surviving child, Edward, who is 20, suffers from a serious mitochondrial disease and needs constant care.
Sharon said: "It was devastating to lose my children, and this happened again and again. I feel lucky to have Edward, but he has very serious health problems as a result of the faulty DNA. "
Am I the only one thinking she is pretty selfish? She knew any child she had was going to have health problems yet she kept trying over and over again to have more???!
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>>Am I the only one thinking she is pretty selfish?
nope!
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mattkime wrote:
>>Am I the only one thinking she is pretty selfish?
nope!
Give the woman a break!
It's not fair to judge her behavior of 20 years ago based on today's diagnostic sophistication.
Chances are that the exact genetic nature of the problem was not immediately apparent -- she's perfectly healthy herself, after all. The first death would have been attributed to an isolated chance event, and it may have taken several births to figure out what was really going on -- depends on where she lived and the medical care available there.
It sounds like she had a mitochondrial abnormality that was pretty much confined to her germ line cells, an unusual situation. Besides, the predictability for somatic and cytoplasmic inheritance is very different from the predictability of chromosomal inheritance.
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C(-)ris wrote:
From the article: "Sharon Bernardi, aged 44, from Sunderland, inherited mitochondrial disease from her mother. The condition has claimed the lives of six of her children, all of them dying within a few days of birth.
Her only surviving child, Edward, who is 20, suffers from a serious mitochondrial disease and needs constant care.
Sharon said: "It was devastating to lose my children, and this happened again and again. I feel lucky to have Edward, but he has very serious health problems as a result of the faulty DNA. "
Am I the only one thinking she is pretty selfish? She knew any child she had was going to have health problems yet she kept trying over and over again to have more???!
Sharon said: "I wasn't diagnosed until after my fifth baby had died, no one knew why it was happening, they had no answers. I would get pregnant again and just pray this time would be different.
"My mum sat me down and told me it had happened to her. The previous generation lost 11 children in total.
"It is just such a devastating thing to happen, but I feel lucky to have Edward. It will be too late for me but it would be an amazing thing if scientists and doctors can prevent this in the future."
Yeah, selfish.
Especially the not wishing it on anyone else part.
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I agree with C(-)ris.
A personal note- when my wife and I married, we shared family histories. When we decided to start a family, we consulted a geneticist. My family has a history of epilepsy. Her family has a history of cancer.
We determined that our kids would *probably* be OK. We even arranged for amniocentesis during each pregnancy. Thank heavens all three of them were normal.... we were not sure what we would have done if the opposite was the case, considering our Catholic upbringing.
They all got my hair and allergies, and her beautiful brown eyes and cute little nose (I've got a honkin' big schnozz)
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billb wrote:
Yeah, selfish.
Especially the not wishing it on anyone else part.
F I V E times. Seriously? After the second or third one she should have stopped. One time might be a fluke, if the same thing happened the second time it should have been pretty apparent there was a problem that needed to be figured out. I'll give you a third time just to make sure or because she REALLY wanted a kid. There is no excuse for the last 3 tries, it obviously wasn't working.
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you can think she's selfish, but ultimately it's absolutely none of your business.
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rz wrote:
you can think she's selfish, but ultimately it's absolutely none of your business.
Thankfully, this is America and I can comment on whatever I want to. But I wonder...is she getting any public assistance or disability insurance for her choice?
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