My Wife and I Have Been Offered a New Prototype DNA Test for Our Pregnancy

Doctors here in Northern Virginia offered to give us a prototype DNA test for my wife's pregnancy (10 weeks into the pregnancy). This is a brand new technology that detects chromosome issues such as Down's Syndrome and Edwards/Trisomy 18. Currently tests such as amniocentesis and the CVS test are used to detect these issues. Our OBGYN says this new test may replace those older tests within 5 years or so. Because they are invasive, amnio and cvs carry some risk of miscarriage. This new test analyzes fetal DNA in the mother's blood and therefore is virtually risk free.

We used IVF (In vitro fertilisation) in order to get pregnant. I have an incredibly bizarre mild form of cystic fibrosis. Normally people with CF die before reaching adulthood. I'm 40. Johns Hopkins is still scratching their heads. As my wife always suspected, I'm a mutant. CF in mild cases causes males to not develop the vasa deferentia tubes that deliver sperm, so I essentially had a natural vasectomy. My wife does not have CF, and isn't a carrier, so there's no increased chance of our child having it. Also, it looks like they are closing in on a cure. The doctors had to extract sperm from my testicles using a needle (called a testicular aspiration). Men out there, I can tell you - needles in the balls is not a fun thing at all. After being extracted, the sperm was then cryogenically frozen (ala Han Solo :^) ).  The fertility doctors also gave us the option to cryogenically freeze embryos. I expressed concern over potential birth defects because of this and was surprised to learn that cryogenically frozen embryos tend to have *LESS* of a chance of birth defects. I hypothesized that maybe only the stronger survive the freezing process. Researched this and indeed this appears to be the likely reason.

All of this genetic testing has me thinking about various science fiction, e.g. Gattaca lately, whether in the near future it will be used for "designer babies". I used to have this "let nature do what nature's going to do" way of thinking in regards to genetic engineering. Lately, I'm not so sure. Is it so much to ask to want a healthy child?

My previous post about genetic testing, etc.

Impermanence & Sushi

I was on a business trip in Japan years ago. Some co-workers and I were waiting in a lobby at our parent corporation. I was looking out at a beautiful, meticulously designed rock garden in a courtyard. One of my co-workers who was from China saw me staring and came over beside me. He said "See how much work went into this? Did you know when there's a storm this will get messed up?" I said "but so much work went into this, and it's so beautiful, it's such a shame." He said "this is one of the main doctrines of Buddhism - impermanence. Nothing is permanent, everything changes." He went on to talk about how you can see this in Japanese sushi. "Think about it, how long does it take for a sushi chef to make sushi? 5 minutes? 10 minutes to make this involved little piece of art and then you eat it in less than a second and it's gone."

"You've gotta be willing to make a whole lot of crap"

Had a conversation with a very talented, successful musician/composer on the west coast once. He wrote scores for movies and TV shows. Played live with other musicians. Was able to comfortably support a large family. This is not an easy feat, usually with music it's feast or famine, poor or famous. I asked him how he did it. He said "you've gotta be willing to make a whole lot of crap first. I'm talking years and years of terrible stuff. It's not easy, you have to be pretty courageous to put a lot of bad material out there. You can't get good just sitting around thinking and planning things, you have to do it. You can't be too 'precious' about your work." This is particularly hard for the perfectionists out there. We want to make a 'Star Wars' right out of the gate. As a person who often get's stricken by paralysis by analysis, I can definitely relate. Think about how creative kids are. When we're kids we're kind of fearless. We don't care about producing crap or what people think of us. As we get older we start picking up all of this baggage and all of these fears.. what if I fail? I'll feel so bad. what will people think? This inhibits our natural creativity. Kids don't think like that, they create with reckless abandon. In order to be creative we have to reclaim our childlike nature.