A hypothetical situation....

[SteveReeves]

Suppose every woman in your family - your mother, your sisters, your aunts, your grandmothers, your great-grandmothers, possibly more - all had and possibly died from breast cancer. Do you decide to have children even though it is extremely likely that if you had a girl, she would get breast cancer too?

This isn't a question about breast cancer but rather a question of whether you would have children even though it is almost a foregone conclusion that they will have some disease they will have to deal with at some point in their lives. Is this something that would factor into your decision on whether or not to have children?

Yes I would, and would do everything I could to prevent / detect any problems for my kids.

 

[C.Ann]

It would depend on the disease..

For breast cancer, no - that would not stop me from having children.. There are many survivors - those who didn't even have to undergo chemo and/or radiation - more and more is being learned about early detection and how to treat it successfully every single day - etc..

I am adopted and although I know quite a bit (not all) about the health history of my birth mother, I know very, very little about the health history of my birth father.. I know he was an alcoholic; had a gambling addiction; suffered from PTSD; and died of a stroke in his early 60's (after I already had my children) - but that's about it..

I don't think there's a cut and dried answer for this particular question..