Agency
The National Co-ordinator of the Association of People Living with Sickle Cell Disorder, Mrs Aisha Edward-Maduagwu, says sickle cell disorder is responsible for 80 per cent of broken marriages.
She stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Saturday in Awka, noting that the term irreconcilable differences, commonly used during divorce processes, meant genotype incompatible.
According to her, several couples are ashamed to spell out sickle cell disorder as the reason for their broken marriages because they recognise that they made a dangerous mistake they could have avoided.
She explained that sickle cell is a red blood disease or disorder inherited from couples or parents with unmatched genotypes, stressing that it is not medically advisable for couples with unmatched genotypes to get married.
The national coordinator lamented that many couples with unmatched genotypes allow faith, spirituality, ignorance, wickedness, desperation to get married and emotions becloud their sense of reasoning.
According to her, such couples would eventually have children with sickle cell disorder where there will be no enough healthy red blood cells to transport adequate oxygen throughout the body.
She explained, “This disorder can lead to many complications such as stroke, pulmonary hypertension, organ damage, blindness, leg ulcers and regular pain crisis, which make the child visit the hospital often.
“Such couples will spend so much to take care of and keep the child alive and most parents are not ready to go through that pain and stress. This is causing problems in homes.
“The family life is affected psychologically, financially and spiritually. Even such a child will question why he or she was born and the couple might, later on, regret their decision to get married.
“This has ended 80 per cent of marriages in Nigeria but they are ashamed to say it out because it was an avoidable mistake they made. Therefore, they term it Irreconcilable differences.”
Edward-Maduagwu advised intending couples to go for a genotype compatibility test to avoid having children with sickle cell disorder.
She further urged religious organisations to go the extra mile to verify the medical results of prospective couples, noting that people forge their genotype compatibility results out of desperation to marry.
The national coordinator added, “Prevention is better than cure. Why run the risk of having children with sickle cell disorder and make such children go through the pain that could have been avoided?
“Ending a relationship is better than having heartache in the future because you might not be able to withstand the pressure that comes with having a child with sickle cell disorder.”
(NAN)
