Primogenial

Ada - Prologue

"I'm sorry," the doctor said, looking down at his tablet instead of at the couple in front of him. This was his routine whenever he had bad news. Breathe in. Breathe out. Don't look in their eyes. "The results were not quite what we had expected."

The newlyweds' hearts dropped at the announcement of bad news. The woman leaned her face into the man's chest. The man started to stroke her hair, but the woman started to gasp for air as if she were being choked. She brought her head back up and looked at the closed door. Following the path of her eyes, the man put his hands on her shoulders to keep in her in place.

"We haven't heard the results yet. It may not be that bad." The man struggled to keep his voice steady as he whispered to the woman.

"Ada," the doctor said, addressing the mourning woman, "we were not able to detect any genetic deficiencies when we ran our test on you. I would not be surprised if you lived a long and healthy life free of any major sickness."

Ada turned her face toward the doctor, allowing the doctor to notice the trail of tears running down her cheeks. She should have been relieved by what the doctor said. But she would rather have had something wrong with her than with Lex.

The doctor now addressed her husband. "Lex, based on our genetic testing, we found your CAG segment to be repeated 50 times. This means that you are very likely to develop Hungtinton disease in the future, and your life expectancy will be 15 to 20 years after your symptoms begin to show. Since this mutation is inheritable, it means that your child has a fifty percent chance of having the mutation."

Ada's hand briefly searched for Lex's before they met. She started to squeeze her husband's hand, but he didn't squeeze hers. Noticing that he sat unblinking, she instead wrapped him a tight embrace muttering to him so quietly that the doctor couldn't hear the words.

There was a chance that Lex would be perfectly fine. There was a chance that their child would be perfectly fine. But it was not a certainty.

"Normally, since this appointment is about conception, I would tell you not to go through with it and adopt instead. But, there is another option," the doctor said as he sat down on his stool. He took a deep breath. "Mind you, this is something that only just got out of the clinical phase. Most people wouldn't be comfortable with this and there are still enormous ethics debates surrounding this despite it becoming legal.

"If we were able to get sperm and egg samples from you, we would be able to genetically engineering a child with the correct number of repetitions of the CAG segment. We could also eliminate any predispositions for other diseases that we may have not detected. After we edit the embryo, we could implant it into your womb and the rest would be the same as a traditional pregnancy. The baby wouldn't even be that different - just healthier.

"I recognize that this is a difficult choice, and that it is something that many people are strongly opposed to, but I will give you time to think it over. I would, however, not recommend a traditional pregnancy due to the level of discomfort you could pass to your progeny."