HD in Breaking Bad
This review contains information regarding genetic testing and coercion as it relates to Huntington’s disease.
Breaking Bad is a popular U.S. crime drama television series that aired from 2008 to 2013. The main character, Walter White Jr., discovers that he has terminal lung cancer and decides to sell methamphetamine in order to secure the financial future of his family when he passes.
In an episode titled Salud, Walter’s son is celebrating his 16th birthday. Unfortunately, Walter is unable to celebrate with his son due to various drug-related medical problems. The next morning, he sits his son down to tell him about a childhood memory that has always haunted him.
The Dialogue
Walter: My father died when I was six. You knew that right?
Son: Yeah.
Walter: He had Huntington’s disease; it destroys portions of the brain, affects muscle control, leads to dementia, it’s just a nasty disease. It’s genetic. Terrified my mother that I might have it so they ran tests on me when I was a kid, but I came up clean.
Interruption for Side Comment
While it is important that Breaking Bad is introducing millions of viewers to Huntington’s disease, there is always a risk of misinformation or stereotyping in entertainment media. In this episode, the most glaring mistake is the comment Walter makes regarding his genetic testing for the disease.
Walter stated that his mother was so scared of his at-risk status that she had tests run on him when he was six years old. Although genetic testing is required to test for Huntington’s disease prior to symptom expression, the historical timeline in Breaking Bad is skewed. Genetic testing was not available until 1993 after Nancy Wexler’s team discovered the location of the gene that causes Huntington’s disease. As Walter is middle-age, it is not possible that he was expressing symptoms of Juvenile Huntington’s Disease as individuals with this disease often don’t live beyond their 20’s.
Continuation of the Dialogue
Walter: My father fell very ill when I was four or five. He spent a lot of time in hospitals. My mother would tell me so many stories about my father. She would talk about him all the time. I knew about his personality, how he treated people, I even knew how he liked his steaks cooked, medium rare, just like you. I knew things about my father. I had a lot of information. It’s because people would tell me these things. They would paint this picture of my father for me. And I always pretended that that was who I saw too, who I remembered. But it was a lie. In truth I only have one real actual memory of my father.
It must have been right before he died. My mother would take me to the hospital to visit him and I remember the smell in there. The chemicals: it was as if they used up every single cleaning product they could find in a 50 mile radius, like they didn’t want you smelling the sick people. Oh, there was this stench of Lysol and bleach, I mean, you could just feel it coating your lungs. Anyway, there lying on the bed, is my father. He’s all twisted up. My mom, she puts me on her lap, sitting on the bed next to him so I could get a good look at him, but really…he just scares me. And he’s looking right at me, but I can’t even be sure that he knows who I am. And your grandmother is talking, trying to be cheerful, you know, as she does. But the only thing I could remember is him breathing. This rattling sound like if you were shaking an empty spray paint can…like there was nothing in him.
Anyway, that is the only real memory that I have of my father. I don’t want you to think of me the way I was last night. I don’t want that to be the memory of me when I am gone.
Review
Forgetting, for a moment, that genetic testing was not feasible when Walter was a child, coercive genetic testing is another topic that was glossed over quickly within the dialogue. In the United States, it is strongly recommended that genetic counselors only test individuals over 18 years old or legal adulthood. There are a variety of reasons why this recommendation is in place. In respect to Breaking Bad, it would prevent parents, such as Walter’s mother, from testing at-risk, non-symptomatic children without their legal consent. Children are thus protected from discrimination from their parents (intentionally or not) as a result of their test outcomes. Additionally, it is the affected individual’s right to decide if he or she wants to know their testing results, which is why parental coercion is highly discouraged.
In this episode, it is clear that Walt has traumatic memories of his father. Unfortunately, for many children in Huntington’s disease families, childhood can be filled with hardship as many parents become symptomatic at this time. While resources for children dealing with the issues associated with living in an HD family were limited to non-existent when Walt was a child, there are many resources today for children including the Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA) National Youth Alliance and the Huntington’s Disease Youth Organisation (HDYO).
While this episode of Breaking Bad does contain major inaccuracies in terms of genetic testing, it does highlight the impact HD can have on children who watch their parents live with the disease.
KP 2014