Chance or Causality in Human Genetics?

Abstract

Deciding whether events are due to causal effects or only arise by chance is one of the most important judgements to make in the research laboratory (and possibly in daily life as well). In genetics random events are supposed to occur at the separation of alleles into germ cells at meiosis and at fusion of germ cells during fertilization; and causal events occur with diseases arising from a point mutation such as cystic fibrosis or sickle cell anemia. Is there a real difference in the results of paired replicate experiments compared with controls or is it just due to random events or chance? Random events may of course only seem so due to incomplete information about the process under study.