A child suffering from Thalassemia is born to a normal couple. But the mother is being blamed by the family for delivering a sick baby.
(a) What is Thalassemia ?
(b) How would you counsel the family not to blame the mother for delivering a child suffering from this disease ? Explain...
(c) List the values your counselling can propagate in the families.

Explanation

(a)Thalassemia is a genetic disease which can be transmitted to the child from any of the parents as its gene is located on a autosome and not on sex chromosome. Father and mother both are equally responsible for transmission of this trait. (ii) If only one parent is the carrier of thalassemia gene, then only some of the offspring may inherit this faulty gene. Since this gene is recessive in nature the child will have thalassemia minor. But in case both the parents are carrier of this defective gene and the child becomes homozygous for this gene, then he will suffer from thalassemia major
(c) During the counselling programme, the values that can be propagated in the families are as follows Mothers are not solely responsible for autosomal disorders. In case they have a history of thalassemia in their family they need to go in for genetic counselling. After knowing the scientific principle of this disorder they should seek proper scientific advise for treatment