Decision Tree
Decision Tree
Breakaway + 8 yrs 6 mos
Helena took a deep breath and keyed the door open to Bob’s research haven.
“Hello, Bob. Do you have a moment?”
Bob Mathias looked up from his charts and prized hardback medical texts and smiled at his section head and good friend. He reminded himself once again that if he had to be marooned on Alpha, at least it was with a co-worker who had become a dear friend over the years. If Dr. Darrel Wandell had still been in charge of Medical at the time of Breakaway, well, one of them probably would have been charged with murder by now.
“Of course, Helena.” Bob closed the e-charts out of long habit, although there was no real medical reason to hide the info from the CMO, and pushed back his chair to fold his hands in his lap.
Helena glanced at the open pages of the old texts. They bore the obvious stick diagrams of familial inheritance trees. “Brushing up on genetics?” Helena asked with a smile. All the doctors and nurses were. Given the current baby boom and their small population base it was important for the medical service to have a firm grasp on what to expect and what to advise. Helena thought this might make introducing the subject she wanted to discuss that much easier. Bob was a very private person. Not quite as much as Sandra, but not too far off. When Helena had seriously begun to think who to ask to help her with this next, uh, ‘project,’ she realized how little she knew of the man’s past.
She looked around and pulled up a chair to sit in front of the neatly kept desk. “Bob, I have a favor to ask.”
Bob gently snorted, but then had to smile again. Helena’s favors usually entailed extra work and lost sleep, but always for the good of Alpha. “Certainly.”
“I would like to have another child. John and I think it would be wise if we upheld the guidelines limiting each couple to two biological children.”
“Even if Stephen isn’t John’s?” Bob was the only other person besides herself and John that was aware of this. “Eventually it will become obvious. Stephen doesn’t look all that much like John.”
Helena nodded in agreement. “When John is ready for that or when Stephen asks questions, of course everyone will know. Even so, I believe it important that the example is set early and obviously.”
Bob nodded his head. It was her choice and of course he would stand by her as her physician.
“I would like you to be the father.”
“No.”
Helena blinked and was surprised into silence. He had not hesitated or even paused to think about it. “Is it a question of race?” She would have thought Bob beyond that, and in fact he waved one hand irritably as if to brush off an annoying insect.
“Of course not, Helena.” There now was a long pause as Bob obviously organized his thoughts.
Helena sat back and waited patiently. She had seen him do this often enough when lecturing nurses or the sole surviving medical student that had been visiting Alpha at the time of Breakaway. Bob had essentially finished the young woman’s formal education and had guided her though a multi-specialty residency. Dr. JoAnne Rysdell had developed into a valuable member of the medical staff.
Bob leveled a calm gaze at Helena. In a quiet, reserved voice he asked, “Would you be willing to terminate a fetus if testing found it to carry a chronic disease for which we have no cure?”
Helena was uncertain where this was going, but she gave Bob the benefit of the doubt. “Such as?”
“Sickle Cell. Would you be willing to abort a fetus that carried the disease?”
Helena thought hard, but she had treated sickle cell patients and knew the long term suffering and shortened lifespan that condition caused. On Earth the answer would have been an unequivocal and emphatic no. Here and now, it tore her heart but she reluctantly nodded her head in agreement. “If the parents requested it.” After a pause to realize why this particular disease had been selected, “Do you…” Helena started, but Bob held up a hand to forestall her question.
Never breaking eye contact with Helena, Bob then asked in his quiet voice, “and if the fetus carried the trait only, would you still be willing to abort?”
Helena’s conscience cried out even before she spoke. Persons with the trait had no problems with the disease except in extreme situations such as prolonged oxygen deprivation. And even if Bob were speaking of himself, a child of theirs, at most, would carry only one gene and therefore only the trait. “Of course not.”
Bob nodded in acknowledgement.
“Then that is a problem. I saw my sister and my daughter die from this disease. I am not willing to see another go through the same suffering. The easiest way to have the condition not be in our genetic base is to not allow the trait to be continued. And, as I am the only person on Alpha with this trait, it will die with me.”
Helena realized then that Bob had been looking for something very specific when he had volunteered to supervise the genetics lab they had set up after the children had started to arrive.
A wave of compassion swept through Helena. Bob had obviously thought long and hard and had arrived at some very difficult conclusions. Thinking to the future she asked, “Will you at least make a donation to the sperm bank? Eventually we may be able to cure the disease. “
“Or not. If no one is suffering from it, why would anyone look for a cure?”
“Bob, you know in science looking for an answer to one problem often provides unexpected clues or answers for another.”
Bob had to grant her the validity of her answer. “I will think about it.” He pulled one of the heavy texts into his lap and started to resume his studies.
Helena stood and turned to leave, thinking how tragic that this brilliant, caring man would leave no children behind.
“Helena.” She turned back, a questioning look on her face. Bob’s deep brown eyes were sad but peaceful. “Thank you.”
Jan 2006
MGK