Genome: Chromosome 4 - Fate

According to Ridley, genes are there to cause disease and the only thing we know about some genes is that their malfunction will cause a particular disease. Chromosome 4 has a very different disease, the Huntington’s chorea with C*G words repeated many times. The mutations manifested during the middle ages when people have already had children and when there is little pressure on it to die out naturally. Also, the disease worsens if it is inherited from the father, growing more severe. Huntington’s disease accumulates in aggregate chunks. It happens with the brain’s movement controls where out body’s movement become less easy or controlled. Ridley tells a story of a woman that came to Nancy Wexler’s hut to be tested for signs of the disease. After many tests, the Wexler asks the woman what she thinks the outcome is, and she hopes that she does not have the disease. Wexler, knowing that she does have the mutations, does not tell her that she has the disease. Because Wexler did not tell her the truth, she had prolonged the woman’s life because that woman was going to commit suicide if she was told she had the disease. This woman cannot stop the disease that’s already taken place in her body; he cannot escape her fate because the fate is in our genes.