[aculeus]

Nazia, a 30-year-old with microcephaly. She guards the shoes at the Shua Dulah shrine

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

I know it's not right to make fun of these unfortunate people, but the temptation of "DemocRat People" is irresistable.

[blam]

Hobbits?

[Coyoteman]

To aculeus: Interesting article. Thanks.

To RightOnTheLeftCoast: I beg folks to please stop posting that disgusting picture. It ruins an otherwise interesting and informative thread, and is no longer funny (post it once you're a wit; post it twice you're a half-wit; arithmetic progression from there).

[the invisib1e hand]

Microcephaly cannot be cured. But it can now be prevented. Now that some of the mutations have been found, parents from families with a history of the disorder can have their newly conceived embryos tested. If the embryo has two copies of the mutation, it can be aborted.

Come now. You mean, the law will require the embryo to be aborted.

Abortion to the...rescue?

How casually we toss the term around now, in our public press. Simple solution. What else will soon be just as palatable?

[Southack]

"To be sure, chimps have versions of these genes, but the human version is different. So different, in fact, that their evolution must have been driven by natural selection."

Rubbish. "Natural Selection" merely eliminates an existing group/population...it doesn't change anything in a gene.

[vbmoneyspender]

Microcephaly cannot be cured. But it can now be prevented. Now that some of the mutations have been found, parents from families with a history of the disorder can have their newly conceived embryos tested. If the embryo has two copies of the mutation, it can be aborted.

I have a better solution. How about not marrying your cousin.

[Rudder]

Should a child be born with an insufficiency of one of these proteins, the neuroblasts fail to divide.

DNA is the locksmith and proteins are the keys.

[RobbyS]

What makes us human is that we have human parents --and a soul. Is it so hard to admit that these are merely unfortunate souls?

[MainFrame65]

Just grind up a few senators, suck up some stem cells from the goo, and inject 'em into these poor folks. The senatorial fat-headed genes ought to fix them right up.

[cynwoody]

From the article:

Disorders caused by recessive mutations are normally rather rare. But not in Lahore; nor in Leeds. That's because of the Pakistani way of marriage. Most of us marry people quite distantly related to ourselves and, as we travel ever further, our mates become ever more genetically remote.

In Pakistan, however, some 60 per cent of marriages are between first cousins; the frequency in Bradford and Leeds is thought to be comparable. The result is that clinical genetics units serving the British Pakistani community see a range and frequency of genetic disorders unknown elsewhere in the country.

I wonder what else about the region this explains...

[Porterville]

[GOPJ]

In the last three million or so years, the human brain has approximately trebled in size. This change, remarkable in its extent and speed, must have been caused by mutations - advantageous mutations - that swept through the populations of our ancestors as they wandered, generation after generation, across the African veldt.That such mutations must exist has long been obvious. The problem has been how to find them.

No fossil record - all those generations and NO FOSSIL record. Zip, nada, zero follil evidence exist anywhere -- almost makes a person doubt Darwin...

[Alouette]

[WOSG]

"In Pakistan, however, some 60 per cent of marriages are between first cousins; the frequency in Bradford and Leeds is thought to be comparable. The result is that clinical genetics units serving the British Pakistani community see a range and frequency of genetic disorders unknown elsewhere in the country. ... "

Cause: Victims of excessive inbreeding.

[SunkenCiv]

Hobbits?

Just bring out the cold chicken and pickles. Oops, I mean, well put. :') I don't think I'll ping it, but let's add it to the catalog.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

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[Lorianne]

Interesting article. Thanks for posting.

[Aliska]

Interesting article indeed. I can't cast off the notion that there may be a spiritual component to genetic defects, or has that old testament idea that genetic defects were a punishment for sin notion been jettisoned for good?

These things seem to start out as clusters and spread or there is always a first mutation, case or cause.

I certainly wouldn't argue the science of it, don't like the idea of using genetic testing that results in the choice of abortion, but a child is doomed to an awful life, much of which it would not comprehend in an impoverished country such as Pakistan, harder on loved ones dealing with it.

What tends to negate the notion that mutations are a punishment for sins is what happened at Chernobyl and environmental disasters causing defects, many in our country like Three Mile Island, Agent Orange, and so on. It makes no sense now.

It will be very interesting if they can regress the gene studies to a time before the phenomenon began. Some seem to have been with us for a very long time, but some seem rather new.

[Junior]

Ping.