Quote Originally Posted by swmc66 View Post
Did the doctors ask Jim to tell his sons? Will he be released from prison on medical grounds? I expect not. Anyway another stupid storyline and I expect more over this next 9 months.
People can be carriers but not have it themselves and not necessary that their children will have it either. I am no expert but we have a life threatening illness in the family and it's only affected one person. We did not know we had it until that point.
Actually myotonic dystrophy is a dominant inherited disorder which means if one parent has it then there is a 50% chance that a child will inherit it. If it turns out Steve hasn't inherited it there's no chance that any of he's children will. For Jim to have inherited it one of Jim's parents must have had it. You can only be a carrier of a particular allele (variation of a gene, my lecturers wouldn't be very happy if I used the wrong term ��) if it is recessive, which this disease is not.