Would You Breed?

I was just watching a program tonight about a certain kind of genetic disease that causes your immune system to attack your own body, it's called NEMO deficiency. In this case, NEMO is not a cute little clownfish, but an essential protein in the cells that prevents the immune system from attacking and killing good cells. If a person is deficient in this protein, the immune system attacks the body and all the good cells. It's terrible, and it is usually fatal. The worst thing about it is, it is hereditary. The good news is though that it can be treated and kept under control. But a person can still be a carrier. This woman whose child was afflicted with this disease, she's had 2 other members of her extended family come down with this same disease, and ended up dead, and she got all shocked and surprised when her own little boy started to show the symptoms of the disease.

This brings me to this question; if you knew that a fatal genetic disease is running in your family, would you have a child? Even though the possibility of that child getting (or even carrying) that disease was very great? I'm not so sure I would! Why put the child through that torture and suffering? I remember some months ago when I saw the documentary about Fatal Familial Insomnia, it was mentioned on that program that that ailment is also genetic. It also showed a young woman, whose family also had a history of the disease, getting married. She was a young girl, and her father died of the ailment. There was an interview with her aunt, who lost a child to the disease. Even the aunt hoped that her niece would never have children because the chance of it having FFI is so great. Most people have kids for selfish reasons, just because they want to carry on their genes. It's sad, but it happens. People have kids and are living in slums, or have kids and are working 12-hour shifts. No wonder kids today are so bad! But anyway, I think the worst thing a person can do is to have kids when they know something so deadly is running in their family. IMO, it's criminal! It's almost like putting a death sentence on your own child! People really should be very careful in cases like that.

NEMO deficiency usually only attacks boys, but girls can be carriers, and pass it on to their kids. Thus the continuation of the disease! It's terrible. Once a family has any kind of ailment in their genes, you cannot get rid of it. It cannot be "bred out", it's always there. You cannot really change a child's genetic code to get rid of the disease, or prevent it from spreading to the next generation. Just cannot be done. Some may be recessive, but they will eventually pop up. That mother knew that NEMO deficiency ran in her family, she knew the potential of it to kill was there. Yet, she selfishly had a child, and it suffered because of the disease. She was damn lucky her child did not die. Just knowing something like that was in my family, I would never have had kids!! People nowadays, I'll tell you, are more conscientious about breeding their dogs or cats than they are about having kids!! Good breeders breed only animals that have no inherited problems, but people think nothing about having kids when they have diseases that will kill their child, or seriously harm them. That's very puzzling to me!