What are YOU made of?

Figure 1. Baby with DNA strips. Adapted from
Genetic Battle of the Sexes, In discoverymagazine.com, 
May 23, 2014, Retrieved November 28, 2014, from
http://discovermagazine.com/2014/june/15-genetic
-battle-of-the-sexes

What are your genes? 

The pants that you wear? No, those are Jeans. Genes are tiny bits of information inside of you that make up who you are. 

Where do they come from?

Your parents. Your genes are a combination of their genes. For example, what color are your eyes? Brown, green, blue, purple? Probably not the last one, right? What color are your parents’ eyes? Most likely, at least one of your parents has the same eye color as you. Is this a coincidence? Not at all! Some genes from your mom and some from your dad come together to make you. 



Figure 2. Julianne Moore and her look-alike daughter, Liv.
Adapted from 15 Celebrity Kids Who Look Just Like Their
Gorgeous Parents, In Suggest.com, n.d., Retrieved November 28, 2014,
from http://www.suggest.com/celebs/5967/15-celebrity-kids-who-
look-just-like-their-gorgeous-parents#slide/3 

When do you get them? They begin to make you who you are the second you are conceived and start growing. 

So what do they do? Genes can do a bunch of different things. They give you your eye color, hair color, hair type, skin color, even your height. They make you unique. Genes can also determine your health. 

Figure 3. Human Characteristics. Reprinted from
Human Characteristics, In lookfordiagnosis.com, n.d.,
Retrieved November 28, 2014, from https://
lookfordiagnosis.com/mesh_info.php?term=
Human+Characteristics&lang=1

So what’s the problem? Some babies get very healthy genes from their parents. Some, however, can get the genes for a disease. Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease is an example of a genetic disease (1). It is a form of dementia which means it attacks the brain (1). Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker is a mouthful so let’s call it GSS instead (1).  A woman named Amanda Kalinsky got this disease because she was born with the GSS gene. Amanda and her husband did not want their children to get the disease (1). They decided they were never going to have kids because they didn’t want to give them the GSS gene. Amanda’s doctors told them they could go through a procedure to make sure that their kids would be born healthy (1). Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, also known as PGD, is when doctors can see which genes a baby will have before it is born (2). This allows parents to pick a baby that will have healthy genes. Amanda and her husband were able to choose a baby that they knew ahead of time would not have the GSS gene (1). 

What would you do? People like Amanda Kalinsky that do not want to pass on a certain gene can use PGD to make sure that their children won’t have it. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Should you be able to choose the baby that you are going to have? Should you only choose babies with healthy genes? Are babies that carry disease genes less important than babies with healthy genes? These are the questions that are going to shape the future of genetic procedures. YOUR generation will get to answer these questions. So what would you do?

References

1. Bailey, R. (2014). The moral case for designer babies: should parents be allowed to know if their fetus will get Alzheimer's?. Reason, (2). 20. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=14&sid=b6a147db-2afa-48df-a980-7b5188b84050%40sessionmgr114&hid=108&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=edsgov&AN=edsgcl.367198234

2. Medscape. (2013). Overview. In Preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Retrieved from: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/273415-overview