Question

An oppressive government widely recognized for violating basic human rights wants to start a program to eliminate a disease-causing recessive allele among its population through sterilization of individuals that have the disease. Why is this unlikely to work?

-Most recessive alleles are present in heterozygotes and therefore would escape elimination

-The mutation rate will increase as selection is placed against the allele, due to the mutation-selection balance

-Most homozygotes will not likely reproduce anyway, so there will be no significant effect of sterilization

-As recessive homozygotes are sterilized, Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium will cause allele frequencies to rise back to the original frequency

Answer 1

Sterilization to eliminate a recessive disease-causing allele is ineffective because recessive alleles are often carried by heterozygotes who wouldn't be sterilized, and new mutations can maintain low allele frequency. Additionally, Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium principles dictate allele frequencies stay constant without evolutionary forces, and ethical concerns surrounding eugenics are significant.

Step-by-step explanation:

The approach to selectively sterilize individuals with a recessive disease-causing allele is unlikely to be effective due to several genetic principles. Most notably, most recessive alleles are present in heterozygous individuals who do not express the disease and therefore would escape elimination. Heterozygous carriers can still pass the allele to their offspring, making complete eradication through sterilization improbable. Another reason the strategy would fail is due to the principles of the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium, which dictates that in the absence of evolutionary forces, allele frequencies remain constant from generation to generation.

Therefore, unless all carriers of the allele, both homozygous and heterozygous, are sterilized, which is ethically and operationally implausible, the allele will continue to exist within the gene pool. It's important to acknowledge that such a eugenic policy not only has flawed scientific grounding but also raises serious ethical and human rights concerns.