Philip Kendall
Hemophilia is an X-linked recessive trait. The disease inhibits the ability of the blood to clot turning a simple paper cut into a potentially fatal wound. This disease is nicknamed “the royal disease†because it originated from Queen Victoria of England, and spread throughout royal families in Europe. The disease commonly occurs in males because they only have one X allele. In female carriers the disease is masked by the other X allele.
Today hemophilia has been decoded as an X-linked recessive trait, but in the 19th century the disease was viewed as a curse that the person had been forsaken by God. Genetic Counselors today could have stopped the disease in the second generation of the pedigree on page 2. Arthur, Alfred, and Louis would be identified as the only individuals who could not have the allele that carries hemophilia. Then the royal family could prevent the disease from traveling down the lineage by only having those three individuals reproduce with other unaffected individuals. Instead numerous doctors tried to cure and treat the disease that did not even understand that it was passed down by the parents.
