I’m in serious pain as I’ve lost another friend to Sickle Cell 💔.
Over the years, I’ve lost a quite a number of friends to sickle cell disease. I’ve witness scenarios where some of them battled with serious health breakdown and wish they were never born. This is so painful because they never signed up for this. Such has happened to them because of either ignorance, stubbornness or selfishness on their parents part.
Ignorance in the sense that many parents know nothing about genotype and as such, get married to each other and just start producing children.
Stubbornness/Selfishness in the sense that some of these parents know fully well that they ain’t compatible, yet they go ahead to get married and produce children all in the name of love or with the religion mindset that a miracle will happen and the genotype of their children will miraculously change. I consider this an act of wickedness, cuz why will you decide to jeopardize the lives of your unborn kids when you’re not compatible with your spouse all in the name of love? Love is not enough to get married and produce kids!
Couples get married every week, which is why It is imperative for the government to take the issue of genotype matching seriously by first creating a wide range of awareness/orientation on Genotype matching and also implement laws that discourages consanguineous marriages so as to help protect individuals and future generations, foster genetic diversity and promote public health.
This doesn’t just end with the government, but also, religious leaders who join couples together, should do well in sensitizing couples and ensuring that they are a match before getting them wedded.
Yes, it’s true that this cannot be entirely handled cuz no one can control who has sex and who doesn’t regardless they are married couples or not, but a wide range of awareness/orientation will go a long way in saving future generations.
PLEASE, KNOW YOUR GENOTYPE TODAY!