This study aims to detect the influence of deeply rooted traditions on physicians' discursive constructions concerning children with genetic diseases involving malformations and mental retardation. It also aims to capture the reflections resulting from the professional care for (and contact with) these children. All the physicians work at the Fernandes Figueira Institute, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Data were collected using oral interviews (in the form of conversational narratives) and were submitted to semiotic analysis. Four traditions were found in the medical discourse: norm, reason, family, and religion. This article focuses exclusively on norm and reason, highlighting how dismorphism, congenital malformations, and mental retardation associated with genetic diseases defy the established norms of perfection, beauty, and productivity. Therefore, feelings of uneasiness, powerlessness, and frustration are increased. The article also discusses how reason, one of the most important cultural traditions organizing modern thought, shapes medical discourse on genetic syndromes associated with mental retardation.
Culture; Child; Genetics