Genetics

The Amish communities throughout the United States today are staring at the future through their children. Amish communities are built on simplicity. They do not drive any vehicles, they do not use electricity, and they do not reach outside for jobs. Eastern Pennsylvania is home to beautiful farmlands and countryside maintained by the Amish, but it’s also a gold mine of information for genetics. Scientists have been studying the region’s Amish culture for years. Genetic health problems are rising at an all time high among the Amish communities. Children are born with medical conditions that are so rare the doctors do not have names for them. This paper is going to talk about the Amish’s genetic problems, the benefits of genetic testing, and the risks of genetic testing.

Because of their closed population stemming, nearly 150,000 Amish in America can trace there roots back to a group of 200 German immigrants who brought the Amish and Mennonite faiths to the United States back in the 18th century. Many of the Amish carry unusual concentrations of gene mutations that cause a number of otherwise rare inherited disorders. Recently there was a CBS news report aired about the crisis affecting the Amish communities. Reports show that the “Amish make up only about 10 percent of the population in Geauga County in Ohio, but they’re half of the special needs cases. “ (CBS News Report) Of the genetic disorders the growing popularity of Cohen’s Syndrome is rising. Worldwide there are only 100 cases of the Cohen’s Syndrome. This syndrome mysteriously leads to mental retardation and a host of physical problems. There are over 30 cases of Cohen Syndrome amongst the Amish people, and still rising.

The problems of genetics come down to the “founder effect”. The founder effect is defined as the loss of genetic variation when a new colony is formed by a very small number of individuals from a larger population. Over generations of intermarriage, rare genetic flaws show up, flaws which most of us carry within our genetic makeup but which don’t show up unless we marry someone else with the same rare genetic markers. In the Amish, in fact, Ellis-van Creveld syndrome has been traced back to one couple, Samuel King and his wife, who came to the area in 1744. The mutated gene that causes the syndrome was passed along from the Kings and their offspring, and today it is many times more common in the Amish population than in the American population at large. The founder effect is an extreme example of “genetic drift." Genetic drift is the changes in frequencies of alleles in a population that occur by chance, rather than because of natural selection. Genes occurring at a certain frequency in the larger population will occur at a different frequency -- more or less often -- in a smaller subset of that population. As in the example of human diseases, genetically determined traits that would ordinarily be uncommon in the overall gene pool might crop up with distressing frequency in a small subset of that pool.

They’ve already identified genes to several rare conditions, including this debilitating seizure disorder found in only 12 people worldwide, all Amish children. There are no cures in sight yet, but doctors are able to offer the next best thing: pre-marital testing, to help future parents avoid these tragedies. Unfortunately the Amish will not be tested. They say everything is in God’s hands.

There are benefits, risks, and one’s own feelings and beliefs that come along with genetic testing. Some religion beliefs like the Amish discussed earlier are an example of why they do not accept genetic testing.

Genetic testing has potential benefits