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Article: Jewish GENETIC DISEASES: Hope Comes With Diagnostics and Education
- Article from:
- Forward
- Article date:
- August 25, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightProvided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Leonard Fein
Forward
08-25-1995
Jewish GENETIC DISEASES: Hope Comes With Diagnostics and Education.
The Hapsburgs had a disfiguring hare-lip, and the Romanovs passed on hemophilia through their bloodlines. Blue blood wasn't the problem, though; royal intermarriage was. And nearly all ethnic groups and regions where people procreate within a smaller gene pool, also have specific genetic disorders that occur at higher frequencies among their members than in the general population. The Jewish people are no exception.
These disorders are found primarily in families of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. Some of these diseases incapacitate the victims, while others -- either slowly or quickly -- result in ...