Jewish Genetic Diseases

It is very scary to me that there are genetic diseases associated with members of the Jewish population, especially the Ashkenazi Jewish individuals with eastern European blood than in other populations. Some of the most common are recessive genetic diseases such as Niemann-Pick, Canavan, Gaucher, and Tay-Sachs. These diseases are very deadly and in my genetics class I took last semester, we had to chose a genetic disease to look at and I picked Tay-Sachs, this is such a sad disease because it manifests itself in children and along with the other diseases, those who are inflicted with these usually do not reach age 5. This is so strange to me that a genetic mutation can be found so heavily within a group of people and that it can become a part of ones Jewish identity. Tay-Sachs is the most widely known and it attacks the nervous system and is found to be ten times more likely to be found in members of the Ashkenazi Jewish population than in others. This is so shocking to me. I think that for all Jews, it is of high importance to get tested, these diseases are genetic and recessive, therefore, you may not know that you are a carrier or if your partner is and what your chances are of having a child that is inflicted with one of these highly deadly and debilitating diseases. It would be very sad to find that you are a carrier but maybe not as sad as giving birth to a child that dies a year later, maybe adoption would be a better option? That is just my opinion personally because I would hate to see any baby or child suffer. This is very sad, but is something else that we as members of the Jewish population are faced with.