Carrier (eBook)

When Bonnie J. Rough receives the test results that confirm she is a carrier of the genetic condition hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia, or H.E.D., it propels her on a journey deep into her family’s past in the American West.
At first glance, H.E.D. seems only to be a superficial condition: a peculiar facial bone structure, sparse hair, few teeth, and an inability to sweat. But a closer look reveals the source of a lifetime of infections, breathing problems, and drug dependency for Bonnie’s grandfather Earl, who suffered from the disorder. After a boyhood as a small-town oddity and an adulthood fraught with disaster, Earl died penniless and alone at the age of 49. Bonnie’s mother was left with an inheritance that included not just the gene for H.E.D., but also the emotional pain that came from witnessing her father’s misery.
As Bonnie and her husband consider becoming parents themselves, their biological legacy haunts every decision. The availability of genetic testing gives them new choices to make, choices more excruciating than any previous generation could have imagined. Ultimately, Carrier is a story of a modern moral crisis, one that reveals the eternal tension between past and future.

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This memoir of one woman's struggle with her DNA's legacy and its effects on multiple generations of family is ';amazing' in ';the raw courage she exhibits' (Publishers Weekly, starred review). When testing reveals that Bonnie Rough is a carrier of a genetic condition known as hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia, or H.E.D., she begins a journey into her family's painful history and faces agonizing moral decisions about her own future as a parent. Characterized by what look like superficial complicationsunusual facial bone structure, an inability to sweat, lack of teeth or cone-shaped teeth, and sparse hairH.E.D. is a rare condition with surprisingly serious repercussions for its sufferers. In this emotionally honest exploration of the disorder's effects on her own family, Rough writes in the voices of her grandfather Earl, who had the condition, and her mother Paula, who inherited the gene and transmitted it to her son. These first-person accounts of living with the effects of H.E.D.and the damaging ways Earl tried to fight it, which led to him dying penniless and addicted to drugsare marked by their raw honesty and anger. Knowing that the disorder is transmitted by mothers to sons, Rough and her husband must face their own excruciating choices about future parenthood, and confront how the past will inevitably shape their future.