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Show - T is " mother usually asks after giving birth to a child. The desire for perfect offspring is overwhelming in every parent, for there is almost no heavier burden than the tragedy of a defective child Yet it has been estimated that two in every 100 children are born with some abnormality. Bnormalities used to be considered "acts of God," punish- jneaf, Jpr sin, or a cross to be borne in silence. Some of this i$jS$ng stiil persists. fToo- often," fathers blame mothers when something is wrong with their babyMpst mothers feel guilty anyway and torment themselves with the idea that something they did during pregnancy .injured the infant In realiftinherited defects are due to the genes contained in theegand" sperm cells of the parents. These microscopic organismsaetermine the characteristics, desirable and undesirable, of the new individual. "All of us probably carry hidden defects," says Dr. Sheldon Reed, director of the Dight Institute for Human Genetics at the University of Minnesota. "It's just bad luck when both parents happen to carry the same defect and produce a child state." showing the disorder in its If only one parent carries the defect, the child may nave a better chance to escape inheriting it Deciding in advance whether a child definitely will be healthy is beyond the knowledge of science, but it is possible today to get reliable information as to the chances that certain disorders may appear in your children. ry On the recommendation of your family doctor, you can get advice from a group of heredity counseling services connected with universities or medical centers. ,XIatformations such as harelip, clubfoot, and nervous dis orders comprise an important part of the problems considered at these counseling centers. Such malformations tend to cluster in families, and the birth of one such child means a greater risk for the next Geneticists say that if a woman bears a malformed child who dies, she runs a 5 to 11 percent risk that her next child also will be deformed. If two such babies are born, the risk becomes 15 to 25 percent t - full-blo- I o-l 7-t- wn . in eugenics say that one aspects of heredity counseling is preventive medicine. The fact that a doesn't necessarily mean it's hopeless, assume. On the contrary, effective Txperts '' : ' Psychiatric Institute Columbia', University, New -York, City. (V North Carolina: Medical Genetics Department, ; V' . versity, New Orleans. Maryland: Biology Department, Johns Hopkins ; Cnipersity, Baltimore:. Michigan: Hetedity Clinic University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Zoology Department Michigan' ' State ,lnitersity, East Lansing. Minnesota: Dight Institute, University of Minne- "' iota, Minneapolis. Ww.yorfe; Medical Genetics DepaVtmenV State , v: r' : ; ' . T v i f Of course, every family situation is different so only a geneticist can say what your particular outlook may be. The basic problem, according to Dr. F. C. Fraser of McGill University, is to determine whether a defect is the result of chance or inheritance. Take the case of one young couple who had a baby girl. She died at four days because of a malformed windpipe. Later they had another girl, who died of a circulatory defect Their third baby, a boy, also failed to survive. When the woman became pregnant for the fourth time, she asked a heredity center whether she or her husband carried some deadly flaw which doomed their children. The geneticist could discover nothing in the parental background to account for the three tragedies. Understandably, however, the woman lived in fear until her fourth child was born normal. . Winston- - Medicine, y; ..'.''. w w Texas, Auittn. r Hinge screws mm T w w m m www J vw ;; j Reset them with New Plastic Wood. Makes a permanent fix that won't i Utafcy laboratory of HuWn Genetics, Unirer- ::" ryof' Utah, Salt lake City. V' r ; . .Virotnta:, Btolooy and Genetics Department, .v ; Medical Colfeffe of ViiniaJRtcKmbnd , ' - loose? : Ji.V;- . . . - .j i 'm crack, chip or peel. New Improved um Plastic Wood has a finer ! Takes stain. shrinkage - grain-minim- ' . . ;I cooking, smoking, bathroom, pets, musty closets, baby's room, and sick room. So get new Florient today at your grocery or dru g store. i - . , rw Cl9tt n Air Deodorant quickly kills unpleasant household odors , v.;. ! f instant-actio- Ohio: Institute of Human Genetks, Ohio State- - ; j ' Columbus ti University, v ; V )j www. ; FUrUnt : , v'.:''-i-'.- . 'OfclaKo77ta: 'lnit?erity of Oklahoma, Norman. ,"; .. ' Gray;Schoolof On Spray ' "'-- 1 . Bowman Salem. , - S": 4 U'j: , ' . Tulane Uni . of the most important the part it can play in condition is hereditary as many people falsely treatment is becoming increasingly available. One of the most interesting developments in this field has been the discovery of "carriers" apparently normal people who pass along an inherited disorder. If the heredity counselor can identify such a carrier beforehand, he can advise him to avoid marriage with another carrier. According to Dr. C. Nash Herndon, a medical geneticist at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine, many tragedies might be avoided among American families if there was more '"'. . ipi f . f Louisiana: Anatomy Department, 'i o-l. 2-t- o-l Here t a partial list of reputable centers which , offer heredity counseling:' ; :: ;. r ' Illinois: Zoology Department, University of Chicago, Chicago, 11 Clubfoot is a deformity which occurs about once in every 1,000 births, more often among males than females for some unknown reason. Generally, treatment for clubfoot is successful, however. A couple whose first baby suffered a clubfoot consulted a heredity center. The geneticist found that clubfoot had appeared on both sides of the family and told the anxious couple that while heredity is a strong factor in this disease, the condition of the pregnant mother also affects its development The couple was told their future children would run a 3 to 8 percent risk of suffering clubfoot . According to old wives' tales, a baby born with a harelip was supposed to have been marked before birth by the experiences of its mother. Today we know this to be nonsense. One infant in 1,000 is born with a harelip, but if a parent has the defect, the gamble becomes 50-tthat the child may have it, too. And if one child is born with it, the odds for the next infant drop to about There is an inherited susceptibility, too, for such diseases as diabetes, rheumatic feVer, tuberculosis, and schizophrenia. Some kinds of eye diseases and rare types of cancer also are hereditary. A child whose' parents suffered schizophrenia was offered for adoption, but the adopting parents changed their minds when told by a heredity counselor that the odds were the child also would, develop the disease. my baby normal?" This is the first question a - ; : ' s : 5 cl'v',''a heredity counseling. He says marriages often are broken up needlessly because of unfounded fears of pregnancy and mis' taken beliefs that children may be bornabnormaL Dr. Reed of the University of Minnesota declares that fewer parents would land on psychiatrists' couches if they inquired about hereditary defects before having children. He says that once these risks are understood, parents accept the birth of an abnormal child with much less emotional shock. Heredity counselors report that the risk of having a defective child is often much less than you fear, though perhaps authorities. greater than the odds quoted by some Whether the information you receive from a heredity counselor is cheerful or gloomy, however, it's important to have the facts on which to base such vital decisions asmarriage.and f parenthood. NEW 1 PLASTIC WOOD Hindlts likt putty hsrdtm into wood ive your life a lift..! Buy what you want by the brand names you knoic. Find the dealers who carry them, self-styl- ed and your buying's easier, value's sure. BRAND NAMES FOUNDATION INCOWPONATCO A NON-PROF- EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION 37 WEST 57 STREET, NEW YORK 19, N. Y. |