Marraige and Genotype Issues

Until recent times when the grave consequences attending the total negligence of genotype started taking a worrisome turn, true love, which is considered by all as rare and only God-given, would have been all that is required for a couple to walk down the aisle to exchange nuptial ties.. Today however, as the fear of bearing a sickler as a child becomes the beginning of wisdom, a million dollar question that all intending husbands and wives must answer in their decisions about whom to marry is: what takes preference: Love or Genotype? And it is not alarming that of late such a question has in many cases started to generate serious confrontations between the head and the heart.

Taking the fore among the plenitude of arguments in support of love is the fact that love in its trueness is rare and so is the search for Mr. or Mrs. Right, without any qualms, no mean feat. As such, many people have opined that it would rather be too costly to forgo love, not even in the instance of genotypic incompatibility. Coming at the heels of the afore is also the argument that risk-taking is an integral part of life, and life without one of such risks is simply bland. So if genotypic incompatibility is another of life's numerous risks, why not?

However, it is noteworthy that marriage between two carriers of the sickle cell trait (HbAS) could only be described as an irrational plunge into troubles. According to Mendelian's principles of inheritance, such couple risk the tendency to produce one sickler in every of four children that they bear. But as the principles of Mendel are based only on probability, likelihood is there that in a most unfortunate situation, the couple could even have all their children coming as sicklers, irrespective of how many!

Sickle cell anaemia is a genetic disorder that cut across all races and as of today, it ranks amongst the topmost challenges of modern medicine because there is yet no clear-cut remedy to it. It is a problem inherent within the blood system, the biochemical basis and features of which could not be expounded within the context of this write-up. Among the limited management methods available are blood transfusion and recently bone marrow transplant in addition to the use of drugs such as nicosan and anti-adhesives. The fact that the victims of this genetic disorder suffer as a result of the ignorance or selfishness of their parents makes it quite pathetic. Anyone who has ever been a witness to the great anguish that a sickler goes through during a period of crisis will definitely not need the eloquence of a preacher before reconsidering taking genotypic incompatibility as one of the numerous risks of life.

I will conclude by saying that love is divine and true love is a blessing, but each man and woman going into wedlock must not entertain sentiment when the issue of genotype comes to the fore. It is desirable to marry the person that one really, truly loves but one must also consider what the future with such a person holds.