Even Nazi efficiency, however, failed to eliminate Huntington disease from Germany. Theoretically, this would work for Huntington disease, where there is always a family history. Many autosomal dominant disorders have high rates of new mutations. Huntington disease is an exception. We ve already shown that this won t work for most autosomal dominant disorders, because of new mutations.
Affected people are just the tip of a genetic iceberg.
Most people do not know that they are carriers unless they have a child with the disease. Sterilizing affected people will not prevent those who are silent carriers from having affected children. The ratio of carriers to people with a disorder increases as the percent of carriers in the population decreases. Using a mathematical formula called the Hardy-Weinberg Law, it is possible to calculate exactly what effect a perfectly efficient sterilization program for all affected individuals would have on the frequency of a gene in a population. Most recessive genes are rare.