Sorry. "Normality" does not count as a mutation.
Why not? All of these and other normal character traits were at one time due to one or more mutations. You are asking to be allowed to filter out some mutations and not include them in the count.
Please list beneficial mutations that are recognized and sought after.
"How many people do you see with even one of these disorders?"
1.8% of live births. About 1 in 20. What does that have to do with it?
I am not great at math, but the last time I looked 1 in 20 was 5.0% not 1.8%. I am inclined to think the latter figure is more accurate. There is a reason disorders tend to be found in a minority of any population and to keep being found in a minority of the population. What, according to you, holds these disorders in check so that they do not become common?
"one of these disorders, never mind combinations of multiple disorders?"
Up to 70% have multiple disorders.
Up to 70% of whom? Everyone? I doubt that. How many with muscular dystrophy are also congenitally deaf? How many congenitally deaf people also have Downs Syndrome? How many children born with Tay-Sachs also have Cystic Fibrosis or Spina bifida?
"These are the conditions that don't get to affect many of the next generation because of the success of natural selection in keeping them from being inherited." Not even a
hint of
reality in your reality.
The reality depicted in that article is the same reality I am speaking of. If you don't get it, you didn't understand the article. The fact of the matter is that people born with these disorders usually don't get to have children (or many children) because 1. they die before they mature,or 2. they don't succeed in finding a mate, or 3. they are sterile, or 4. their children may also share their defects, reducing the likelihood the line will continue.
True, an effect of modern medicine is that more are living to maturity and some are marrying who never would have had that chance a century ago. And more people who might have had large families in the past are opting for smaller families. So the demographics will likely change, but that is also predictable as an evolutionary effect in current circumstances.
Only a small percentage affect the reproductive process.
They don't have to affect the reproductive process at all. They only have to affect the likelihood that the organism will 1. survive to maturity, 2. successfully mate and 3. produce viable offspring. Any failure or reduction of success in any of these categories will keep mutational disorders from becoming too common in the population. Any exceptional success in these categories will assure the continual propagation of a trait that helped to produce that success. Which is why past beneficial mutations are what become normality in a species over time and why normal does count when numbering mutations.
