The goal of genetic screening is to provide information for parents who have a high risk of having a child with a disability. These parents make decisions on issues, which include the management of genetic illnesses, conditions and procedures for conception and pregnancy termination. Genetic screening in terms of discovering that a woman is carrying a baby with a disability and the women has an option of carrying the pregnancy to term or terminating it, would bring up the issue of abortion. However, the issue is not terminating a pregnancy, the issue is, should these types of information be given to parents knowing that there is good chance the end result would be to have an abortion. Some might say genetic screening is unethical because it is predicting that a fetus is carrying a disability gene and because of this gene this fetus should not have the right to live. This is the same as saying handicapped people should have never been born, some might say. On the other hand genetic screening will not only provide us with genetic knowledge of a fetus before it is born but it will also tell us whether the fetus will be able to have a well functioned life. Normally, parents are aware that they might have a risk of having a baby with a genetic disability or disease and they usually seek advice from genetic counselors. Genetic counselors can assist parents in decisions about predictive testing, which can identify if a fetus has one or more altered genes when the effects do not typically appear until later in life. There are two types of predictive testing: presymptomatic tests and susceptibility tests. Before suggesting that clients do presymptomatic testing, the genetic counselor prepares their clients to accept the test results. ... ... middle of paper ... ... Works consulted Andrews, Lori B. Medical Genetics: A Legal Frontier. Chicago: American Bar Foundation, 1987. Barker, Penelope. Genetics and Society. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company,1995. Kogan, Barry S. A Time To Br Born And A time To Be Born. New York: Walter de Gruyter Inc, 1991. Ayme Segolene."Population Genetic Screening Programmes: Recommendations of the European Society of Human Gentics." EUROGAPPP (2000):54-55. Sorenson, James. "What We Still Don't Know About Genetic Screening and Counseling" New England Journal of Medicine." (1972): 203-211. "Genetic Screening: ethical issues" Nufield Council in Biothecs (1997):36-38. Genetic Testing and Selection: A Response to the Disability Ctitique. Dan Brock. URI Media Resource Center. Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2003. © 1993-2002 Microsoft Corporation.
Human Genetic Screening and Discrimination in Gattaca. Works Cited Missing A few months ago I watched a movie called Gattaca, which dealt with the issue of genetic discrimination in the near future. In the movie, people were separated into two classes, those that were genetically screened and positively altered before birth and the class that was unaltered. The separate classes had stark divisions, from what jobs that you were able to apply for to where you could eat. Security was aimed at keeping unaltered people away from the enhanced people.
Child is a gift from God. Every parent hopes for a healthy child. Abnormalities in the fetus growth have become common nowadays. These abnormalities may be due to physical, radiation and chemical factors. The most common factor is due to genetic mutation, which causes mental retardation, abnormal body buildup and other conditions, which bring a lot of troubles in the future to the child themselves and their parents. Modern technologies and innovations in the medical field had developed a method known as prenatal screening to detect the abnormality before birth and prevent this future tragedy to happen. It is screening for the detection of fetal diseases, usually by ultrasound examination or by testing the amniotic fluid obtained by amniocentesis (Williams & Wilkins, 2004). It is available to all pregnant women. Others screening techniques may include maternal serum, placental biopsy, and genetic test. There are several advantages and disadvantages of prenatal screening.
In Gattaca, the plot focuses on the ethics, the risks, and the emotional impact of genetic testing in the nearby future. The film was released in the 90s; yet in the present, the film does not give the impression of science fiction. Today, genetic testing is prevalent in many aspects of the scientific community. This paper will describe genetic testing, its purpose, diagnostic techniques that use genetic testing, relating Huntington’s disease to genetic testing, and the pros and cons of genetic testing.
In Laura Purdy’s account of Genetics and Reproductive Risks: Can Having Children Be Immoral?, Purdy’s claim is that conception of a child is immoral when there is reasonable concern of a genetic disorder and if prenatal screening is not done to see how likely it is for your child to obtain that disease, then it is wrong. Purdy thinks it is immoral to reproduce when we are at high risk of transmitting a disease or defect and she says it is wrong to reproduce without knowing the consequences of our genome. The birth of a child at risk of a serious defect could be prevented by abortion or preventing conception of a child. And conception is only allowable once a person has undergone a prenatal screening and if a selective abortion would be done, and for those who are against abortion must be extremely careful not to conceive.
First, bioethics is basically what it sounds like; bio-, short for biology, which is the study of living things; and ethics being what is right or wrong related to a certain subject. So bioethics pretty much is what is right or wrong about a certain subject in biology. In this case the certain subject is genetics, such as genetic testing and genetic engineering. In the world of Gattaca the bioethics are often strange and backwards. For example, in the movie it states that it is unlawful to hire or not hire someone based on their genetic profile. But no company follows that rule, and one way or another they will find a way to get a sample to test to take an illegal look at ones genes. This by our society’s standards, and even somewhat by Gattaca’s societal standard, is very unethical. It has taken discrimination all the way down to the genetic level. This level of discrimination makes it to where one’s own genetics are a disability. Not to say that genetic testing, or even genetic engineering, is inherently bad. In Gattaca it is very common to have one’s child genetically engineered before conception. In our society this is a very controversial subject. On one hand, one could potentially make their children immune to most diseases, smart, strong, good-looking, and etc. But on the other hand the question arises, is it ethical: morally, biologically, socially, or whatever, to essentially decide what the child will be or who they will be before they are even conceived? Considering that this film was made in 1997, its use of genetic testing and engineering is very
There are several types of genetic tests that can give us a broad amount of information about ourselves, our parents and/or children (What is testing?). Personally, I see advantages and disadvantages to it. Anyone is able to find the probability of them having a disorder or disease and start dealing with before it gets to a lethal stage. For women, it is reassuring to know whether a disorder that they possess can be passed on to their children or not. They can also know whether their child is healthy or not before it is even born. It also impacts on how scientists deal with diseases since they are given a different output of the disease at its early stages and allows them to study it until a cure is found. But what happens when your private information goes public? People will be treated differently because of a high risk of having a cancer in the future. In your CV, your past experiences and your qualities will be accompanied by your genetics test results that inform the company whether you will be a risk to them in the future. A new kind of discrimination will be created in our society. A second major disadvantage to genetic testing is people using it for “superficial” purposes like changing children’s eye colors and other biological characteristics that should not be changes. Above the disadvantages are the benefits which are why I am all for the genetic testing for health-related purposes.
If two parents get tested and find out that their child could have the disease, they could choose to get an abortion, which would be abusing the benefits of genetic testing. In the Jewish testing article it says “or they may choose to end the pregnancy” (Goldschmidt). In this case, taking the life of an unborn child due to genetic testing is an example of how genetic testing can be morally unsound. Also, if a cure is found for genetic testing, the treatments can be very harsh. In the Patients in Limbo article is says “every month for the first two years of her life” (Marcus). Although a cure was found, this child had to undergo extreme treatment in order to have the chance of being cured for the condition. As just a young child, depending on the type of treatment it is, this can be too extreme for such a young patient and can deteriorate the young ones body. In this situation, although genetic testing led to results, it also led to things that can cause pain and suffering, which is not what genetic testing should be used to
First, let's consider the situations in which genetic testing would be beneficial to patients. Genetic testing for diseases that are preventable or treatable could allow individuals to alter their lifestyles so as to treat the disease or reduce their risk of developing the disease. For instance, the E2 version of the APOE gene, which is found on chromosome 19, has been linked to heart disease (Ridley, 1999). Individuals who have two copies of the E2 gene are particularly sensitive to high-fat and high-cholesterol diets. Therefore, a genetic test to determine whether a person has the high-risk version of the APOE gene could inform a person of future health risks, thereby allowing the person to change his diet to help prev...
It was not until my sophomore year at Michigan State University when I found the career path of genetic counseling. I was instantly attracted to studying genetics because the human genome astonished me and enabled me to work with the two things I love – Genetics, and caring for those in need. My main motive in studying genetics is the desire to contribute to the growing medical fields and give my utmost help to our society to overcome genetic diseases. I will graduate with a major in Genomics and Molecular Genetics with a minor in Health Promotion at Michigan State University Lyman Briggs College. This sustained and comprehensive genetics major makes me distinguished among other applicants since my understanding of genetics and genomics is much more in-depth and my dedication to pursuing a genetic counseling career is my end goal.
The desire to have a "normal" child is held by every parent and only now are we beginning to have the ability to select for that child. In preparation to receiving genetic testing, the parents are required to meet with a genetic counselor. A detailed description of the testing methods are reviewed with the couple as well as the risks which are involved with each. Upon an understanding of the procedures, the counselor discusses the many possible outcomes which could be the result of the diagnosis. Finally, before any tests are performed, anxieties from either of the parents are addressed as well as the psychological well-being of the parents.
The "Genetic Screening" Genetic Screening. NDSU,. Web. The Web. The Web.
Health screening, according to Durojaiye, (2009), is a systematic application of a test or inquiry to identify individuals at risk of a specific health problem. This enables further investigation or direct preventive action, among individuals who have not sought medical attention on account of their symptoms of that problem. Screening is different to diagnosis as it is performed on people without symptoms; it does not provide a diagnosis but rather identifies individuals at increased risk for follow-up diagnostic testing. Therefore, the main aim of screening program is to detect disease or risk factors among the general population, in order to carry out preventive or therapeutic intervention because the highest benefit one can derive from a specific treatment is when the disease is less advanced (Trevena, 2009).
Genetic testing, also known as screening, is a rapidly advancing new scientific field that can potentially revolutionize not only the world of medicine, but many aspects of our lives. Genetic screening is the sequencing of human DNA in order to discover genetic differences, anomalies, or mutations that may prove pathological. As genetic screening becomes more advanced and easily accessible, it presents society with difficult questions that must be asked about the boundaries of science and to what degree we are allowed to tamper with the human genome. To better understand the potential impact of genetic screening on our society, we must examine the potential benefits in comparison to the possible negative impact it may cause. With this knowledge in hand, we can examine what the future holds for this field of study and the best possible direction to take.
First of all, I want to start by saying that I 'm not discriminating the disabled community, but this is a very large number that could possibly be diminished with the help of genetic testing. (1) I believe that there is nothing wrong with testing the genes of an unborn child to possibly determine if it could develop a genetic disorder in the future. One of the advantages that genetic testing provides is that the parents could now be informed of the situation, and keep track of their unborn child 's health. I 'm sure those parents are pleased with this technology, and the chances to be able to keep track of their baby. This a baby, and is something very precious, and valuable, and I believe that parents want to keep track of anything that may happen with the unborn child. I 'm sure that a large amount of people would agree would agree that they don 't want to suddenly take the hard hit. When the news is presented in the delivery room. This serves more as an advantage than a disadvantage, due to the fact parents. Pull be more prepared, or possibly have the option to abort it. This is a right that the parents should have regardless of the opposing side arguments towards it. Im a hundred percent sure that the opposing side has very strong arguments towards genetics testing, and one of the main ones is "playing God." The opposing side believed that some things in
New technological advances are being mad every day, especially in genetics. With great innovations comes concerns whether it will have a good cause or be used for bad intentions. One of these is eugenics, the idea to improve genetic composition in humans most specifically in future fetuses. The idea started in 1883 by Sir Francis Galton who wanted to selectively breed humans using desired traits to create a perfect human race. This lead to many unethical moments in history such as the sterilization of unfit humans in the 19th century as well as Hitler’s use of eugenics during WWII. However, current use helps identify possible inherited diseases/conditions in unborn children and remove those traits from the DNA. Although eugenics has been used