Jacques Moua
GN 301
Genetics in Human Affairs
Section 2 - 10:15-11:05
SR # 2
February 24, 2003
"I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this assignment"
By Gina Kolata
New York Times, published February 18, 2003
Curing diseases at the genetic level is a hard and expensive task, but a group of people has practiced a technique that has nearly eliminated one genetic disease. Tay-Sachs is the disease that has nearly disappeared from the Jewish community due to simple genetic practice by the people. Tay-Sachs is a deadly genetic disease that affects the neurological functions of the body, which can cause one to go mentally retarded, blind, deaf, and physically impaired. Throughout the history, the Jewish community has been known to have a high percentage of getting Tay-Sachs. In the past few decades, the Jews have fought back against this disease and have succeeded in their mission. According to today's records, cases of Tay-Sachs have decreased by 95%.
With money contributions, families and the communities have worked with geneticists to hunt down the Tay-Sachs gene. The Ashkenazi Jewish population has been screened all around the world for this deadly gene. The screening program for Tay-Sachs began during the early 1970's and continued until this day. Through the screenings, they have identified the carriers of the disease and have kept track with possibilities of those people having children with Tay-Sachs disease. Geneticists have taught the Jewish community about how the disease can be passed on to future generations through genes. International programs were setup to acknowledge and keep track of marriages and births inside the Jewish community. They have discouraged marriages between carriers of the genes and have found alternative ways of families to have children, such as adoption. In the United States, the number of children born with Tay-Sachs disease has decreased from 50 children per year to 5 children per year. After such great effort over the years, the number of Tay-Sachs disease cases has nearly disappeared from the Ashkenazi Jewish population.
Although genetic screening programs can be very effective in reducing the number of cases for a particular genetic disease, I believe that it is wrong for communities to promote genetic screening for everyone. It labels people and creates new stereotypes in the society. In a sense, it separates the people into groups who carry the bad gene from those who don't. For example, after reading this article people may think of the Ashkenazi Jews to be the only people to carry such disease and view them as unhealthy people. The community may discriminate people carrying bad genes in social events, such as courtship behaviors, dating, and marriage. I strongly believe it is wrong to tell someone who they can and can't marry in life. Promoting genetic screening to identify carriers for a bad gene can build new social classes in the society. In my opinion, the world seems to be taking a step closer to a "Brave New World", where people are separated into social classes according to their genetic makeup.