Katherine Littman
Challenging Notions of Normality, Disease, and Risk in Trisomy X
Mentor: Dr. Negar Elmieh
| Should we liberally diagnose trisomy X as a disorder? Diagnosis may impart benefits to individuals, but it also harms through iatrogenesis, genetic discrimination, and the potential for manifestation of symptoms. Are the benefits of diagnosis inherently medical or can they exist without testing and labeling? Western sociocultural understandings legitimize trisomy X as a medicalized state. However, like many “normal” states, trisomy X has the qualities of a risk factor, and I argue that it is one shade of genotypic variation. Importantly, trisomy X individuals deserve to know that the medical lens is not the only way to understand their reality. |
