Q: Doctor, I am in love with this lady, but both our genotypes are A.S. I learned that if we get married we could have children with sickle cell. See, can’t we just get married? Isn’t there a way out? Please, help!
A: Yes, of course, you can get married! But you must know the gravity of the risk you are taking and be ready to bear the likely consequences of having, raising, and possibly, losing, sickler children.
As we said yesterday, a lot in medicine is about probability and percentage. All, or some, or none of your children might be sicklers. It all depends on chance—like playing the ludo dice game.
This is the risk: you have a 25% chance of have a sickler! That is high-risk considering the physical pain, emotional trauma, financial expenses, and social stigma involved in raising a sickler!
Save yourself the pain. And no need bringing a child into this world to suffer—especially now that God has given us the wisdom to know how sicklers are gotten and how to avoid having one!
Don’t gamble. No dice games.
Happy Tuesday!
