ABSTRACT
Carriers of the Huntington’s disease (HD) gene and their spouses may be strongly motivated not to pass on the mutated gene to their offspring. Underlying reasons expressed by future parents are that they do not want their future children to be faced with the same difficult choices as they have to now make and feelings of guilt towards offspring if they pass on the gene despite being fully aware of the risk. Also, they realize that they are the first generation to know of the hereditary nature of the disease and that nowadays realistic methods are available to ‘stop’ the disease, not only for their own children but also for all future generations. One of our patients expressed his feelings as follows: ‘My wife and I feel it as our duty to ban the disease from the family’.
