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Genetic Counselling for Mediterranean Anaemia in Post-war Greece

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History of Human Genetics

Abstract

During the twentieth century, haemoglobinopathies and Down syndrome were the most frequent hereditary diseases in Greece. Until the 1950s, medical knowledge concerning the mechanism of hereditary transmission was inadequate, thus making the work of physicians very difficult. It was only in the 1960s when the improvement of medical technology and genetics provided physicians with accurate diagnosis of the most widespread anaemia in Greece, Mediterranean Anaemia or beta-Thalassaemia. In Greece, as in the majority of Mediterranean countries, there was a growing concern for this particular disease, because of the high percentage of carriers in the region. As was often expressed at that period of time (1950–1980), Mediterranean anaemia was the prime social and medical problem.

A carrier of Mediterranean anaemia does not have any apparent symptoms, but the defective gene can be easily diagnosed with a simple blood test. Moreover, a defective gene is expressed only when the person inherits it from both parents. Due to the simplicity of the procedure and the safety of the result, many physicians found themselves obliged to recommend preventive measures, such as a simple blood test.

While some considered the counsellor’s involvement in the decision-making of the parents paternalistic, others thought it imperative. Discussion about genetic counselling prevailed during the period under examination and doctors’ opinions varied. Value-neutral information about the risk of the disease and a non-directive approach were most of the time impossible. However, the dominant view among the doctors was that each prospective parent should take their own responsibility towards this problem.

Since the 1960s, there have been numerous epidemiological studies and abundant statistical data dealing with the incidence of the disease. The first Centre for the prevention of Mediterranean Anaemia was established in Athens in 1975. The blood examination which revealed if someone was a carrier was free of charge. The Greek state funded this centre in Athens and smaller units, incorporated in big hospitals, in the rest of the country.

Although some Mediterranean anaemia experts participated in the meetings of the Hellenic Eugenics Society, the prevention of thalassaemia in Greece was not associated with eugenics. Instead, it became part of the preventive policies of the Greek national healthcare system.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Kattamis et al. 1970, 502–505.

  2. 2.

    See Weatherall 2010.

  3. 3.

    Cao 2010, 62.

  4. 4.

    See Farmaki and Galanello 2011, 272–280.

  5. 5.

    WHO Working Group 1982, 655.

  6. 6.

    Ibid. and Koutelekos and Haliasos 2013, 101–112.

  7. 7.

    See Fessas and Stamaloyannopoulos 1964a; Fessas and Loukopoulos 1964b; Loukopoulos 1965.

  8. 8.

    Caminopetros 1938a, 27–43; Caminopetros 1938b, 104–125.

  9. 9.

    Malamos 1962, 5–13; Cowan 2008, 192.

  10. 10.

    Caminopetros 1952, 687–693.

  11. 11.

    Loukopoulos 2011, 572.

  12. 12.

    Canali and Corbellini 2006.

  13. 13.

    Dronamraju 2006, 2–4.

  14. 14.

    Canali and Corbellini 2006, 58.

  15. 15.

    Angastiniotis and Eleftheriou 2011, 314.

  16. 16.

    Cooley and Lee 1925, 29.

  17. 17.

    Caminopetros 1938a, b.

  18. 18.

    Kattamis et al. 1973; Kattamis 2011b, 330.

  19. 19.

    Kattamis et al. 1979; Kattamis et al. 1982.

  20. 20.

    Kattamis 2011a.

  21. 21.

    Thomas et al. 1982.

  22. 22.

    Loukopoulos 2011.

  23. 23.

    Silvestroni and Bianco 1975; Silvestroni and Bianco 1983.

  24. 24.

    Ashiotis et al. 1973; Angastiniotis et al. 1986.

  25. 25.

    WHO Working Group 1982.

  26. 26.

    Choremis et al. 1963; Fraser et al. 1964; Barnicot et al. 1963; Barnicot et al. 1965.

  27. 27.

    Malamos et al. 1962.

  28. 28.

    Ibid. 11.

  29. 29.

    Hellenic Eugenics Society 1976, 136.

  30. 30.

    Angastiniotis and Eleftherieu 2011, 313.

  31. 31.

    Modell 1977, 495.

  32. 32.

    Hellenic Eugenics Society 1976.

  33. 33.

    Weindling 1997.

  34. 34.

    Dardavesis 2008.

  35. 35.

    Loukopoulos 2011, 573.

  36. 36.

    Ibid. 575.

  37. 37.

    Ibid.

  38. 38.

    Ibid.

  39. 39.

    www.paspama.gr.

  40. 40.

    Ibid.

  41. 41.

    Ibid. 573.

  42. 42.

    Angastiniotis et al. 1986; Ashiotis et al. 1973.

  43. 43.

    Cao et al. 1981.

  44. 44.

    Maniatis 2008.

  45. 45.

    Chatzinikolaou 2002; Mantzarides 2009; Vantsos 2009.

  46. 46.

    Service of Crowning or Marriage. The Great Euchologion of the Orthodox Church 2014, 199.

  47. 47.

    Loukopoulos 2011, 575.

  48. 48.

    Angastiniotis et al. 2011, 314.

  49. 49.

    Modell 1980.

  50. 50.

    See Loukopoulos et al. 1983; Loukopoulos et al. 1988.

  51. 51.

    Loukopoulos et al. 1982.

  52. 52.

    Loukopoulos 2011, 575.

  53. 53.

    Loukopoulos 2016: Interview with the author. Athens, Greece.

  54. 54.

    Hellenic Eugenics Society 1978b, 307.

  55. 55.

    Loukopoulos 2011, 574.

  56. 56.

    Hellenic Eugenics Society 1978b, 303.

  57. 57.

    Hellenic Eugenics Society 1978b, 308.

  58. 58.

    Loukopoulos 2011, 574.

  59. 59.

    Hellenic Eugenics Society 1978b, 308.

  60. 60.

    Aleporou-Marinou et al. 1980; Loukopoulos et al. 1982; Weatherall 2010, 59.

  61. 61.

    Ibid.

  62. 62.

    David 1992; United Nations 2002.

  63. 63.

    Barmpouti 2015, 40–41.

  64. 64.

    Hellenic Eugenics Society 1978b, 306.

  65. 65.

    See Aleporou-Marinou et al. 1980; Loukopoulos 2011.

  66. 66.

    Hellenic Eugenics Society 1965; 1977; 1978.

  67. 67.

    Lane 1955, 198.

  68. 68.

    Bashford 2014.

  69. 69.

    Louros 1955 and 1960.

  70. 70.

    Hellenic Eugenics Society 1978a, 7–28.

  71. 71.

    Hellenic Eugenics Society 1976.

  72. 72.

    Hellenic Eugenics Society 1978b.

  73. 73.

    See Bashford and Levine 2010, 3–24.

  74. 74.

    See Turda 2010.

  75. 75.

    Cowan 2009.

  76. 76.

    Canali and Corbellini 2003, 747.

  77. 77.

    Ibid. 3.

  78. 78.

    Greece. Law 300/1968.

  79. 79.

    Hellenic Eugenics Society 1978b, 302.

  80. 80.

    Hellenic Eugenics Society 1976, 124.

  81. 81.

    Loukopoulos 2011, 574.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Theology, School of Social Theology, Department of Christian Ethics and Sociology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Alexandra Barmpouti

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Ethik, Geschichte und Theorie der Medizin, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Heike I. Petermann

  2. Institute of Medical Genetics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom

    Peter S. Harper

  3. Institut für Geschichte der Medizin und Ethik in der Medizin, Charité-Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Susanne Doetz

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Barmpouti, A. (2017). Genetic Counselling for Mediterranean Anaemia in Post-war Greece. In: Petermann, H., Harper, P., Doetz, S. (eds) History of Human Genetics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51783-4_27

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