Huntington's Disease is a devastating, degenerative brain
             disorder for which there is, at present, no effective treatment or
             cure. It slowly diminishes the affected individual's ability to
             walk, think, talk and reason. Eventually, the person with the
             disease becomes totally dependent upon others for his or her
             Unfortunately, the trait is dominant, and there is no such
             thing as a carrier. Either you have it, or you don't, though some
             people don't find out that they have the gene until they have
             children. The disorder affects males and females equally and
             crosses all ethnic and racial boundaries. Each child of a person
             with the abnormality has a 50/50 chance of inheriting the fatal
             gene. Everyone who carries the gene will develop the disease.
             In 1993, A genetic marker was discovered which localised
             the Huntington's disease gene to an area close to the tip of the
             short arm of chromosome four. The gene itself causes
             horrendous problems. At one end of the gene, a pattern of three
             DNA bases (CAG), repeats itself in all cases. In normal
             individuals, this triplet repetition occurs between 11 and 29
             times. In people with Huntington's disease, the repeat occurs
             over and over again, from 40 times to more than 80. This
             abnormal number of repeated sequences prevent the gene from
             functioning properly. The gene repetitions lead to the repeated
             amino acid on the protein produced by the gene called
             huntingtin. The repeated amino acid (glutamine) changes the
             way the protein works with all of the other proteins. Huntingtin
             with the repeated glutamine sequences seizes and keeps hold of
             the important proteins in the brain and body. With all of this
             disorder going on throughout the body, all of the other proteins
             can't perform their regular role.
             This is a disease that can be very draining on families:
             emotionally, physically and economically. Though the disease is
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