A series of three documentary programmes looking at recent research into life before birth, and its consequences.
1: The Genetic Chance
Prince Alexei, heir to the Russian throne, suffered from an incurable disease of the blood, haemophilia. By an unlucky chance he inherited the disease, as did some other male members of the family, from his great-grandmother Queen Victoria. Today it is possible to determine the sex of a child before birth and offer parents an abortion of a male foetus. But the choice is not an easy one. A woman, desperate to avoid giving birth to a child suffering from a cruel disease, knows that there is an evens chance of her son being normal. Would the Royal Family as we know it exist at all if selective abortion had been available in Victorian times? Robert Reid examines the dilemma which the quirk of genetic chance posed for three generations of a London family.
Research assistant DAVID WOODNUTT Film editor ANGUS NEWTON Producer ROBERT REID
Book (same title), £5.00, from bookshops early next year. The first of three articles linked to this programme appears in The Listener this week. Preview: page 19