2010 National DNA Day Online Chatroom Transcript

This is just one question from an archive of the National DNA Day Moderated Chat held in April 2010. The NHGRI Director and many genomics experts from across NHGRI took questions from students, teachers and the general public on topics ranging from basic genomic research, to the genetic basis of disease, to ethical questions about genetic privacy.

648
If both parents are alcoholic, does that affect their child?
     Barbara Biesecker, M.S.: Barb Biesecker directs the JHU/NHGRI Genetic Counseling Training Program and has been doing genetic counseling for thirty years. Her primary interests are in achieving quality of life for those affected with a genetic condition or at risk. This is a complex question because of course alcoholic parents affect a child in multiple ways. If the mother drank during her pregnancy, that could have affected the child's development. Kids of normal intelligence and size probably were not harmed by alcohol consumed during pregnancy. Having alcoholic parents does make it more likely that a child could become an alcoholic in the future. However, this is a condition a child has control over. Avoiding alcohol or minimizing alcohol consumption is a way to avoid the same outcome but it can be hard to achieve if you have been raised in a home where there are alcoholic parents.
East Haven High School in CT (10th grade student)

< View ALL questions and answers from 2010



(short, single keywords work best at first)