Huntington’s disease (HD) is an inherited disease that causes certain nerve cells in the brain to waste away. It is rare for huntington’s disease to be caused by a new mutation, where neither parent has over 36 CAG repeats.
Each parent has two copies of every chromosome but gives only one copy to each child. In some families, all the children may inherit the HD gene; in others, none do. Whether one child inherits the gene has no bearing on whether others will or will not share the same fate.
In the UK fewer than 1 in 5 people at risk of having the faulty gene choose to undergo genetic testing. A study published in the British Medical Journal reported that individuals with a family history of genetic disease are frequently discriminated by their relatives, friends and also by insurance companies.
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