Intermarriages of hereditarily deaf mute and of hereditarily blind people, marriage counselling and the question of sterilization
article
Discussion of the advice to be given in cases of marriage between deaf mute or blind people on the basis of the author's personal experience. Short review of the literature on different types of recessive and dominant dcafmutism. It is desirable that directors and doctors of institutions should minimise the chance that individuals of the same hereditary type become too closely acquainted. As for hereditary blindness, autosomal-dominant and sexlinked affections should no longer be transmitted. This may be attained by desistance from marriage, by having few or no children and by voluntary sterilisation. An indication for the latter was given in the author's case of bilateral retinoblastoma in 3 generations. A short summary of affections leading to blindness with different modes of heredity, among which also X-chromosomal transmission, demonstrates the necessity to consider each case separately before giving advice. In cases of hereditary hydrophthalmus one should be very cautious because contrary to expectation it has been proved that a minority behaves as a dominant character. In cases of connatal blindness in children, where the diagnosis is doubtful, light reflexes and ERG may prove helpful, as the nondevelopment or non-functioning of the ncuro-epithelial layer may be one of the possible causes. © 1956 S. Karger AG, Basel.
TNO Identifier
527961
ISSN
00015652
Source
Human Heredity, 6(1), pp. 113-121.
Pages
113-121
Files
To receive the publication files, please send an e-mail request to TNO Repository.