Why Is Predictive Testing for Huntington Disease Avoided for a 4-Year-Old

question 14

Multiple Choice

Why is predictive testing for Huntington disease avoided for a 4-year-old child who has one grandparent with the disorder?

• A)Unless one of the parents is positive for the gene mutation, a negative finding would be noninformative.
• B)The Huntington disease mutation is poorly penetrant and may never be expressed even when inherited.
• C)A 4-year-old child cannot understand or participate in the genetic counseling process.
• D)There are no effective primary or secondary prevention strategies for this disorder.

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Definitions:

Evolutionary Psychologist

A psychologist who studies how evolutionary principles help explain the origin and function of the human mind and behavior.

Inheritable Traits

Characteristics or features of an organism that can be passed from one generation to the next through genes.

Biological Ancestors

The direct lineage of organisms from which an individual has descended.

Epigenetics

The study of stable changes in the expression of a particular gene that occur without changes in DNA base sequences; the Greek prefix epi- means “on top of” or “in addition to.”