The new genetics

Abstract

In 1900, genetics was born when the papers of Austrian botanist Gregor Mendel were rediscovered by scientists thirty four years after their publication.¹ Mendel’s observations led him to postulate laws of inheritence to explain similarity and variation in the traits of pea plants and their progeny. Today, genetic considerations have become so much a part of reproductive practice in industrialised countries that it is almost impossible to consider pregnancy and childbirth without them.