Word: hemophilia
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...everybody is rooting for the gene splicers to achieve their goals. Were they to do so, they would possess truly Faustian power, not only to make repairs when genetic machinery goes awry, as in such diseases as hemophilia and sickle-cell anemia, but to "improve" the species itself. There may be perils in disturbing a microbial balance that has been billions of years in the making with strange, new man-made bugs. Asks Biologist Robert Sinsheimer, chancellor of the University of California at Santa Cruz: "Do we really wish to replace the fateful but impartial workings of chance with...
While the experiment offers the possibility that by changing the genetic material in the human egg, doctors may one day be able to eliminate a host of inherited diseases-including hemophilia, Tay-Sachs disease and phenylketonuria, a metabolic disorder that may result in brain damage-many basic questions must first be answered. For example, will the transplanted genes actually work as they are supposed to or will they be modified or inactivated by the animal's own genetic machinery? Will the foreign genes free-float in the cells or will they latch on to the other genes arranged along...
...some forms of retardation. Also discernible are such features as eyes, ears, mouth and genitals. Even more important, the technique enables doctors to take blood and tissue from the fetus. From these samples they can diagnose a severe skin disease known as epidermolytic hyperkeratosis and such blood disorders as hemophilia and thalassemia, and the 40% of sickle cell anemia cases that amniocentesis misses...
...baby teeth. Frequently there is bleeding into joints, leading sometimes to crippling. Today many hemophiliacs are successfully treated with injections of factor VIII, but that is therapy, not a cure. It is also expensive-$6,000 to $26,000 a year. For many couples with a family history of hemophilia, the prospect of raising a child with the disease is more than they can face...
...blood vessels on the placenta. Using a tiny needle, they withdraw a few drops of the baby's blood, which is analyzed by radioimmunoassay techniques for factor VIII. To date, investigators have used the experimental procedure on eight women, all of whom had family histories of severe hemophilia. In four cases the tests showed that the fetus carried almost none of the clotting factor. Abortions were performed; tests later confirmed that the fetuses had severe hemophilia. In the other four cases, because the tests revealed that the fetus was normal, the pregnancies continued, and three of the women have...