Free Republic

A team of scientists at the University of Utah has proposed that the unusual pattern of genetic diseases seen among Jews of central or northern European origin, or Ashkenazim, is the result of natural selection for enhanced intellectual ability. The selective force was the restriction of Ashkenazim in medieval Europe to occupations that required more than usual mental agility, the researchers say in a paper that has been accepted by the Journal of Biosocial Science, published by Cambridge University Press in England. ["The Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence"] The hypothesis advanced by the Utah researchers has drawn a mixed reaction...

When Karen Coveler and her husband began trying to have a child, she told her obstetrician that she wanted to take all the DNA tests she could to determine whether she was at risk of passing on a genetic disease to her child. Based on her Ashkenazi Jewish background, Ms. Coveler was offered 10 tests, all of which were negative, and went on to have a normal pregnancy. It was not until her son, Benjamin, was born that she discovered he was deaf. And it was not until a few weeks later that she learned a simple blood test could...