You should be fined for not having insurance because if you have an emergency and go to the emergency room, then you do not have the money for the bill, it gets charged to everyone else. Get medical insurance for your entire family at the best price from http://bit.ly/9sfoMb By contributing to the pool and doing your part, overall costs come down. Its like stores that have to charge more because of all the theft. People go to the hospital and then not pay, it gets charged to everyone else.

"Experts suspect there are at least double the number of people with Huntington's disease who don't have symptoms but can pass it on."

Presumably you mean the people that have Huntington's but have yet to manifest symptoms. If you have the gene, you have Huntingtons. You can't just pass it on, it is a dominant gene.

Huntington's runs in my dad's family; 3 of the 5 children have/had the disease. Fortunately for me my 80 year old father does not. Not so hot for my cousins, some of whom have been tested but others don't want to know. A couple of my cousins had their children before they realized their father had the disease, and before genetic testing was widely available. Younger cousins have opted not to have children.

Not sure about the "stigma" stuff, though. I don't remember anyone being ashamed of my granddad when he had it, and at that time it was still generally called "Huntington's chorea". He had to retire early and died at 70, incapable of doing much besides watching TV and more or less feeding himself.

But if it runs in a family, I think with testing available that most people would choose to know before they had children themselves. If the carriers have fewer children, the disease will eventually wane.

rorybrad, what does your comment have to do with the story???

If all children of a parent with it have a 50 percent chance to get it, then what is the percentage for the grandchildren and great grandchildren??? It is in my sister's ex-husband's family and some children, and grandchildren have what I think are beginning signs of symptoms. Since it is inheritable, it would have been helpful to include this information.

My understanding is that there IS NO treatment for Huntington's Chorea. Most US cases are as a result of two brothers who immigrated from England at the early part of US history-- when we were a colony of England. It is a very tragic disease and any family who has relatives with the illness have my sympathy and compassion.