Final answer:
Children of two carriers of Wilson's disease have a 25% chance of having the disease, a 50% chance of being carriers, and a 25% chance of being unaffected.
Step-by-step explanation:
Understanding the Genetics of Wilson's Disease
Wilson's disease is an autosomal recessive disorder, which means that a child must inherit two copies of the defective gene, one from each parent, in order to manifest the disease. When both parents are carriers of the gene responsible for Wilson's disease, they each have one normal allele and one mutated allele, represented as 'Ww' where 'W' is the normal allele and 'w' is the mutated allele.
Using a Punnett square, we can predict the probability of their offspring inheriting the disease. The possible genetic combinations for the children are: 'WW' (normal), 'Ww' (carrier), 'wW' (carrier), and 'ww' (affected). Each combination represents a 25% chance since the Punnett square contains four possibilities.
Therefore, the children have a 25% chance of having Wilson's disease ('ww'), a 50% chance of being carriers without the disease ('Ww' or 'wW'), and a 25% chance of being completely unaffected ('WW').