• Question: why do some people have disabilaties

    Asked by taraleeburton to Cat, Daz, Holly, Johnson, Pamela on 22 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Cat O'Connor

      Cat O'Connor answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Hi Taraleeburton,

      What a great question! And one that is very important to understand.

      Well I like to think of it this way, why don’t I look exactly the same as my sisters? And why do no two people have the same taste in music, like the same food, have the same colour eyes and can roll their tongue?

      The answer to this is we’re all different, and we’re different at the very core of us, that’s in the genes, the pieces of DNA that make us who were are. The differences that make my hair wavy and my sisters hair straight also can cause me to have dyslexia and my sister to not have it!

      Some people have more differences in their genes than others, and sometimes these differences can make people sick or cause them to have a disability.

      If you think about Down’s Syndrome which can cause sufferers to have mental disabilities, this is caused by a change on a gene on a piece of DNA called chromosome 21! One little change can cause a person to have a disability while a brother or a sister may not have it. It’s mostly down to chance really. Our body does this really cool thing to try and reduce the risk of such a thing happening. Instead of just having one copy of DNA, it has a back-up! The back-up is exactly the same as the other bit but if there is a problem with one piece the back-up will replace the bad bit! Pretty cool right? It is all pretty complicated and if you don’t understand anything I’ve said please comment or ask another question! We’re here to answer any of you questions 🙂

      Hope this helps,

      Cat

    • Photo: Johnson Soronnadi

      Johnson Soronnadi answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Hi taraleeburton,
      As Cat stated, it has to do with genes which differs in everyone. Most in born disabilities originates from error in the DNA (building blocks of our body) which can be transferred from our parents or which runs through the family either in recessive (hidden) or dominant (known) or by natural mutation . Most times when two parents carrying recessive genes marry, there are chances it will turn up in one of their offsprings. Is one of the duties of scientist to recognize these genes early to avoid it being transferred . There are many works going on most genetically disabilities.

      Hope that helps?

      Johnson.

    • Photo: Darren Braddick

      Darren Braddick answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Hi taraleeburton!

      Disabilities is a way of saying that their body doesn’t work quite how it was designed. However, this may not be true strictly, because all differences between humans are unique, and it is why every person on earth is different in some way. Disabilities arise usually because the genes, or the DNA of the person has been affected by the random mixing of their parent’s DNA.

      When the human baby is made, it begins as one cell which contains the DNA of both parents. This is mixed, and that mixture then goes into every cell of the human body when it grows up from this single cell. Some changes will make things like different eye colours, but some might affect how some limbs move – for example how they develop and grow.

      Sometimes some bad things happen in the mixing process, and this is where many disabilities can come from.

      I hope this helps answer your question! Forgive me for being so late to reply!

      Daz

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