Genetic Screening

Genetic Screening

The door opens and your doctor steps into the room. The doctor is wearing a frown on his face. He tells you that they just got your tests back from the lab and wants to refer you to a genetic counselor. Given the current trend in our society man y of us may fare this situation in our future. But what does this mean to our lives, what can these tests really tell us? In this document I will address what type of tests are considered genetic screening and what they can tell us, the ethical argument s floating around in the media today, and how you should embrace this new technology.

What is Genetic screening

Many of the tests we call genetic screening are for pregnant women. Pregnant women are given many tests to screen for possible fetal developmental problems. Some of the tests done are blood tests to tell if the women has a higher predisposition t o have a baby with spina bifida, or fetal Down syndrome. (Blatt 1997) These tests are safer than the invasive tests and many people are hoping that someday all of the genetic screening done will be done on the mothers blood, this te chnique is called fetal cell sorting. But today many of the tests that can be done on the fetus require invasive techniques, like a needle for amniocentesis and precutaneous umbilical blood sampling where a needle is inserted into an umbilical vein in ue tero. These tests can actually screen the genes of the fetuses. And in some situations women choose to terminate pregnancies because of the results.

One test done on newborns has been in practice since the sixties. Phenylketonuria is a disease that can cause retardation if not caught early enough in a child's development. The government has mandated the testing of newborn for this metabolic i mbalance that can be treated by proper diet. (Blatt 1997) Many other diseases can be diagnosed at birth with relatively no danger to the infant as compared to the invasive procedure describe earlier. But many of these diseases that can be diagnosed have no known treatment for them like Phenylketonuria. From newborns on up to adulthood many new diseases can be diagnosed.

Many tests have been developed, and more are developed everyday thanks to the Human Genome Project. The sheer enormity of data scientists are being presented with virtually ensure that almost everyone will have some genetic disorder that could be identified.