When you think of albinism, you normally think of the pale white skin, silvery blond hair, and shockingly light eyes. People with albinism have a genetic disorder that causes them to have no pigmentation. One would think this only affects their outer appearances, but it actually affects their vision as well.
At the very back of the retina, there is normally a pigmented epithelium, and melanin, the pigment that gives color to skin, hair, and eyes, is normally found in the retina’s macula. The melanin allows for migration of photoreceptors to the center, forming the foveal pit. However, in people with albinism, their retina’s do not contain this pigment, so during the retinal development, the photoreceptors do not shift inward as much, and a foveal pit is not formed. Because of this reduced clustering of photoreceptors at the fovea, the number of photoreceptors per unit area in this crucial area of the retina is much lower than in normal eyes. Therefore, people with albinism do not have very sharp vision and many are blind.
In the article “Albino Like Me,” Lee Laughlin, co-founder and national conference chair of the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation, talks about her struggles with albinism and the possibility of raising kids with albinism as well. With her impaired vision, she cannot see details and fine print very well, but can see large objects at a distance. Her eyes are also very sensitive to light and glare because of the lack of pigmentation in her irises. She needs to have sunblock constantly.
Because her husband has the same type of albinism that she has, their children would receive the albinism genes as well. Before deciding to have children, she had to contend with whether or not she wanted her children to have to deal with the social aspect of looking different and the physical aspect of poor vision. She concluded that everyone has challenges to face in life, and albinism is just another one of them. However, she hopes that when her children begin to have their own families, they might have the chance to decide which attributes of albinism to keep, such as the light skin and hair, and which to eliminate, such as the sensitivity to sun and impaired eyesight, with the help of new developments in genetic engineering.
Of course, having albinism is not all bad. In fact, one famous model with albinism made her traits work in her advantage. Connie Chiu, a Chinese woman with albinism, was a model in the 90′s and even starred in Recoil’s music video “The Stalker,” according to Wikipedia. I think she is quite stunning.
