Even in death she looked like a goblin.
Cal is probably the only one I have any sympathy for. The guy probably had to put up with a lot of shit from his parents as they looked after these blind, barely sentient, always in critical condition beings, all the while probably being starved of parental attention and affection. Yet at the same time, I got the impression that regardless of that, he still loved his sisters. No doubt he now has to deal with more bs from his mother in grief while dealing with double loss in one year.
I can't tell if the doctor was simply humoring Gwen or they really were that credulous about Claire's abilities.
While I'm sure that he'll be sad and grieve, he's also been able to prepare for their deaths for their entire lives. There's a big difference between losing a healthy sibling suddenly and losing a sibling gradually via a terminal illness. That hole in his soul was there the moment his siblings were born.
All 20 amino acids are 'essential' in the sense that you can't live without them. What 'non-essential' means is that humans don't need it in their diet because they can synthesize it. Humans can synthesize it, that is; meat potato goblins like Lola and Claire are meat potato goblins precisely because they lack the gene to do this. If they aren't getting asparagine from their diet, or their mother's placenta, they aren't getting it. Many of their symptoms probably could have been ameliorated if Gwen had remembered this simple fact and fed them a diet rich in asparagine (and eaten a lot of it herself when pregnant). Asparagine is found in many foods, but asparagus is especially high in it (hence the name). Goat milk and melon aren't even adequate nutritionally for normal infants let alone a child with asparagine synthesase deficiency. This was gross neglect and the only reason no one cared enough to do anything about it is that Gwen's goblins were never people to begin with.
Cal was tested for it but the results have not been publicly disclosed. The rareness of the gene and the fact that both parents have to contribute a copy means that there's no need for serious concern unless it's known or suspected that the mother has the gene too. Even then, if the parents are informed of the risks and are willing to abort on the 1 in 4 chance that the child gets two bad genes, I don't see that much of a problem. I mean, obviously it would be better if there were no more carriers of ASD being born, but most people would see more of a problem with demanding that someone be sterilized for something as preventable (by mate choice or prenatal gene testing and abortion) as ASD.
