"Maybe you should think twice about having children."

[columbine]

I totally agree with everyone who said that genetics is just too complicated to predict with any kind of accuracy, and that people who aren't in a position to raise a special-needs child (e.g. wage-earners, as opposed to well-heeled professionals or people already on public assistance anyway) do well to consider the possibility before starting a family.

Love, Columbine

[Samantha Puppy]

But science is nowhere near advanced enough to be able to tell you if you have a 1% chance or a 99% chance on some things. My son's eye issues, for example. We've enrolled our family in a study at NIH to try and learn more about it. Is it hereditary? Or a fluke? Are his other issues connected to the eye issue or not? Is it all related to his two-vessel cord? The purpose of the study is to try and find the gene affected and get to the point where they could tell people the chances of them having children with those issues.

For some things - neural tube defects, just to name one - they have come up with ways to test for the liklihood. But there are sooooo many other kinks that can come up and no tests for those. Therefore, though your eyes may be 20/20 and your spouse also has no history of any eye problems in his family either, doesn't mean your children won't. In that respect, it's a crap shoot. It may be already predisposed, but you don't know that until they're born. That's my point. The science of genetics is not. The fact that we can't test for everything and often can't find out until the child is born is where my "crap shoot" term comes into play.