Daniel

There is no law stopping two people with the SS genotype from getting married, and there shouldn't be. The same goes for two AS carriers. Who you marry is a human right, and the law has no business deciding that. But the absence of a law cannot mean the absence of a conversation. We have to do far more to discourage these unions. When both parents are SS, every child they have will be SS. AS + AS is the quieter danger, and the bigger one. Each child of such a couple has a one in four chance of being SS. Many couples hear that number and tell themselves the odds are on their side. Some get lucky. Many don't, and some have more than one SS child. Because AS carriers far outnumber SS individuals, these pairings produce most of the sickle cell children born today. Many of those couples never checked their genotype until a child fell ill. Either way, it is the children who pay, with pain crises, endless hospital visits and lives built around a condition they never chose. Until science makes sickle cell far less of a burden, this is a responsibility we cannot shy away from. Know your genotype before you fall in love, not after. Too many children are suffering in ways that could have been avoided.