What is the outcome for a child when only one parent carries the genetic trait for sickle cell disease?

When only one parent carries the genetic trait for sickle cell disease, the likely outcome for the child is that the child will carry the sickle cell trait. Sickle cell disease is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern, meaning that a child must inherit two copies of the sickle cell gene, one from each parent, to have the disease. If a child receives one normal hemoglobin gene and one sickle cell gene, that child becomes a carrier, which is referred to as having sickle cell trait.

This carrier status generally does not lead to any symptoms of sickle cell disease. It's important to note that while the child will not have the disease itself, they can pass the trait on to their offspring. This scenario emphasizes how inheritance patterns work with recessive genetic traits, underscoring the distinction between simply being a carrier and having the actual disease, which occurs only when both alleles are the sickle cell gene.