Question

sickle cell anemia is an inherited disease in which red blood cells become distorted and deprived of oxygen. a person with two sickle cell genes will have the disease, but a person with only one sickle cell gene will have a mild, non - fatal anemia called sickle cell trait. using s to represent a healthy gene, and s the sickle cell gene, the table shows the four possibilities for the children of two ss parents. find the probability that these parents give birth to a child who is healthy. that is, the child does not have the disease or trait.
p(child is healthy) =
(simplify your answer.)

Explanation:

Step1: Count total outcomes

There are \(4\) total possible gene combinations (\(SS\), \(Ss\), \(sS\), \(ss\)).

Step2: Count favorable outcomes

A child is healthy if the gene combination is \(SS\). There is \(1\) outcome (\(SS\)) where the child is healthy (not having the disease or trait in the context of the problem's definition, as \(Ss\) and \(sS\) have the trait and \(ss\) has the disease).
Probability formula: \(P=\frac{\text{Number of favorable outcomes}}{\text{Number of total outcomes}}\)
So \(P=\frac{1}{4}\)

Answer:

\(\frac{1}{4}\)