Functioning and Resilience in Families with Children with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Family resilience and functioning in child with DMD.

Most genetic technology is simple: to identify a damaged gene and offer the choice of therapeutic abortion. AH the common defects can be detected in this way and many more have the prospect of a test. But, as the screens become more sophisticated, where should the line be drawn? In Russia pregnancies have been terminated because the foetus is thought to carry genes that dispose to diabetes. But diabetes is a disease that can sometimes be treated with insulin. And what about diseases for which no treatment is yet available, but might be curable by the time the child is in danger of dying? In muscular dystrophy, for example, we now know what protein has gone wrong and a normal version can help mice with a gene for a similar condition. It is not impossible that some treatment may be available within the next couple of decades. As many boys born now with the disease are likely to live as long this poses a moral dilemma of its own. For pre-natal diagnosis, the equation is affected by the age of parents (and hence the mutation rate), how related they are, any family history of inherited disease, the severity of symptoms, the possibility of treatment, and attitudes to abortion ...»