Medicine: Genetics for the Community

Few legacies are more lethal than Tay-Sachs disease, a rare ailment that occurs almost exclusively among Jews of Eastern European ancestry. Caused by an inherited enzyme deficiency, the disease begins to affect infants at about six months of age, causes brain deterioration, and usually kills the patient before his fifth birthday. Science has yet to discover either a cure or a treatment. But doctors at Baltimore's John F. Kennedy Institute believe that they can prevent it. In a unique experiment to bring genetics to the community, they are seeking to identify those who...