In the life of every human being, the birth of healthy children, the fulfillment of fatherhood and motherhood is a great happiness, a natural and pure instinct. However, at present, there are millions of people in Vietnam who do not have that happiness because they carry recessive genes in their bodies and are at great risk of infertility or passing down disease genes to the next generation.
According to statistics, about 41,000 babies are born with congenital anomalies every year in Vietnam, of them about 20,000 have severe congenital anomalies. Children and their families suffer pain and become a burden on society.
"Gene detection for prenatal diagnosis" has been a difficult field that the world and Vietnam's medicine are constantly researching and developing to apply to prenatal recessive gene detection and assisted reproduction for recessive parents.
Recently, the Hanoi Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital implemented the "For a belief in happiness" program, which provides free genetic diagnosis and free IVF for 21 couples living in particularly difficult circumstances, bringing them hope that their love bear fruit, and they give birth to healthy children.
The documentary "For a Belief in Happiness" depicts the pain that is still present in the lives of millions of parents who, at first glance, seem healthy, but they carry recessive genes. Their aspirations to give birth to healthy children seemed far away.
At the same time, the film tells the story of prenatal screening and support for healthy parents who carry the disease gene, helping them have the opportunity to give birth to healthy children, making a difficult dream come true.
"There is a lot of mental pain and material costs because they often have to take their children to the hospital. The most important thing is that we have to do genetic testing to find out what the cause is," said Dr. Tran Van Khanh, Director of the Gene-Protein Research Center, Hanoi Medical University.
"Although there are many modern methods to help couples have healthy babies, not all families can afford them. These screening tests are very expensive, so this program was launched to help many difficult couples to have a healthy child."
The film also brings recommendations for pre-reproductive and pre-marital couples to perform genetic testing and genetic diagnosis to assess and detect the genetic risk of recessive diseases for the next generation.
The film also recorded a breakthrough of Vietnamese medicine in the field of obstetrics and gynecology, bringing a new perspective of people on diseases of mutated genes.
