[blparent] genetics

[jan wright]

Erin, this is so neat! And, the thing is that i have noticed that
children (even at an early age) mimick their parents' reactions to
disabled people. When parents harbor some discomfort about disability
-- and even skin color;  their children internalize it and do the
same. Glad that this did not happen in your case. It makes me hopeful.
yes, I agree! i knew a mother who wanted a boy so much that when she
found out that she was having a girl, she openly grieved and thought
about giving her daughter to another relative to raise. sometimes,
people want a little clone and not a real baby.




Deborah,
you wrote:
"There are about a
dozen retinal conditions that are all called LCA, and the genes for several
of them have been identified."
Are there differences in the severity and symptoms, etc? I find it a
bit humorous/ironic.
His parents were concerned about us marrying. They wondered about us
having a blind child and they wondered how we would cope with everyday
life challenges. of course, the old mantra: "it would be easier with a
sighted person," reared its ugly head.
And, now to know that they both contributed to their children having
LCA: as sighted parents, but i may very well not have the gene at all.
 I'm not saying that they caused their children's blindness. I am just
saying that they  were so worried that two blind people would produce
a blind child: and it was actually two sighted carriers who produced
two.

Hi Ronit,
To be fair, i didn't get that far. It was the nurse and the midwife
who tried to scare us for 15-30 mins about downs and then wrote in our
chart that we wanted genetic counseling when we continued to decline
it. Yes, it would have been nice for someone to explain more about the
genetics of LCA; and probably other things, as well. i do understand
about being thorough and being prepared. But, it seemed as if the
nurse and mw had an agenda and I was nauseous  and was not in the mood
for people who would not listen.  i'll admit that it would be
interesting to know 'what' i am a carrier of and 'what' Dh is a
carrier of, just for information sake! It is interesting to know
"what" kinds of things are actually genetically linked.
I think that geneticists do get a bad wrap because (and I do know one
who was trying to encourage my daughter to go into the field)  because
 some do make a judgement as to "perfect" and "unwanted genes." And,
genes that cause blindness are certainly "unwanted." This particular
geneticists did advocate for terminating pregnancies if the child had
a disability. But, i do realize that she could have been in the
minority. Besides, all geneticists and counselors should understand
that there is an element of randomness.