First reported in 1960 by John Edwards, it is now the second most common autosomal condition around the world. Affecting newborns with symptoms that vary greatly and no individual cure is able to determined. Not only is this condition unable to always be diagnosed because of over one hundred different abnormalities but a child with this condition can be born of two healthy parents. The translocation and exchange of genetic material during the formation of a zygote will determine if a child has this condition and the severity of their symptoms. Researches still do not have an answer to why this occurs but they do know it is due to the presence of extra chromosome 18. The main reason for all of this is the variances in the possible phenotype for each child and if there is no translocation gene in the parent the child may still have this disorder. Scientists and researches all around the world do not know exactly why this occurs, but hopefully a cure can come soon. It may not appear as though several children are affected by such a disorder but with high chance of miscarriage, still births and termination of pregnancies the exact number of trisomy 18 pregnancies per year may not be known.