Genetic Responsibility in Nigeria

The Harper’s Podcast

An estimated one out of every four Nigerians is a silent carrier of sickle cell disease, a hemoglobin disorder that can cause serious health problems and even death. With recent advancements in genetic testing, many Nigerians won’t take the risk of reproducing with other silent carriers or people with the disease. But, as Krithika Varagur reports, love doesn’t always accord with the Punnett square. Providing a snapshot of what our “genetic responsibility” could be as prenatal tests proliferate, Varagur sat down with Harper’s Magazine senior editor Elena Saavedra Buckley to discuss one couple’s story of public health, family, and most of all love in Lagos. Subscribe to Harper’s for only $16.97: harpers.org/save “Love in the Time of Sickle Cell Disease,” Krithika Varagur’s story in the August edition of Harper’s: https://harpers.org/archive/2023/08/love-in-the-time-of-sickle-cell-disease/ Krithika Varagur’s book, “The Call: Inside the Global Saudi Religious Project”: https://bookshop.org/p/books/aristotle-s-poetics-hippocrates-g-apostle/17272634?ean=9781950071036 Larissa MacFarquhar on the family court system: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/08/07/when-should-a-child-be-taken-from-his-parents Katherine Boo’s piece, “After Welfare”: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/04/09/after-welfare Aristotle’s Poetics: https://bookshop.org/p/books/aristotle-s-poetics-hippocrates-g-apostle/17272634?ean=9781950071036 3:35: The story started as “an aside my friend in Nigeria made” 8:10: “I am a romantic, and I don’t think I would write this story about people who don’t choose love” 13:25: “In a lot of traditions, unlimited choice is not the one way route to a good life” 14:52: There’s been a “revolution” in sickle cell treatment over a single generation 17:35: “Sickle cell is no longer a death sentence,” which complicates responsibility 22:30: A range of possibilities is “closer to our reality with genetic testing” than a yes/no 26:00: “Genetic responsibility shouldn’t turn into a genetic blame game” 34:25: The best story is one that would be powerful at the dinner table 37:55: To quote Carl Sagan, “If you want to invent an apple pie from scratch, you have to create the universe”