Genes

Genes are fascinating things.

For years some years (nearly 10, I think, until she died), my grandmother used to enjoy giving me books as XMAS presents. One of them was Richard Dawkwins' book, The Blind Watchmaker. I can highly recommend this book.

On the other hand, there's also a darker side to genes. Some health problems are inherited thru our genes. When it is known that a condition may be inherited, this may place an additional burden of responsibility on parents, or potential parents.

For example, when I was young, I read a story in a newspaper about a woman who refused to marry a man because he wore glasses, she didn't want her children to wear glasses. I reaction was "What about love?" Didn't love have anything to do with it? For this woman, I guess not. Unless she just loved her (as yet unborn) children even more than their potential father.

Perhaps I wasn't just shocked by how (apparently) cold someone could decide such things. I think I'd only recently begun to wear glasses myself, so perhaps it felt personal. I don't know. It's hard to tell now, years later.

However, it does give me something to think about when I hear people expressing fears about gene therapy, and the idea that some of us may be "unwanted".