Genetics define the traits and characteristics of a person. Genetics are determined by your parent’s genes, DNA and chromosomes. Many people have a genetic disease, and this can be identified by doing genetic testing and screening. This essay will talk about the difference between genetic screening and testing and a positive aspect of genetic screening. I will also talk about a genetic disease that it would be important to know you have and my personal opinion on abortions for children that have a genetic disease. Reasons as to why genetic discrimination laws exist and an online article about new technology being used in genetics and that there are ways for genetic discrimination because of it, and how reliable and trustworthy the source is.
The difference between genetic testing and genetic screening is that genetic testing is used for when someone has a hereditary risk of a disease, whereas genetic screening is used for people without a genetic risk for a disease. These two tests use the same technology but the concept of them is different. Genetic screening is commonly used for unborn babies to see whether they are healthy or not and how they are going to prepare for the problem if they have a disease. Genetic testing looks for 1 specific disease that is passed down in the family. These tests are very beneficial as you can know whether you will have the disease that has been genetically passed down.
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A positive aspect of genetic screening is that it can be determined whether you have a high risk of having a certain disease gene. Genetic screening is also known as a population-based screening, and people that fall in a certain age group, with the existence of certain genes in their body, will have this screening done.
A genetic disease that would be important to know that you have would be cystic fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis is when the cells in your body that generate digestive juices, mucus and sweat are affected. This causes passageways, ducts and tubes in the body to be blocked by fluids which are generally sticky and thick. Screening for cystic fibrosis are generally done with infants after birth, so that treatments can lessen complications in the future. It would be important to know whether your child had cystic fibrosis to be able to prepare for medication that would be able to ease the symptoms associated with this genetic disease. Another reason it is important to know whether you had this disease is because it is a life-threatening condition that can last for a lifetime that can’t be cured.
I think that if your child is going to have a disease you shouldn’t have an abortion. Parents have spent so much time trying to have a child and when they find out their child is going to be born with a disease they often lead to having an abortion. Just because your child has a disease doesn’t mean you can’t love it as much as without a disease. You should want to protect, nurture and love your baby, whatever disability it has as a good mother.
Genetic discrimination laws exist so that everyone is treated equally by an insurance company or their employers, whether they have a genetic disease or not. Many people needed these laws to feel more comfortable when getting a genetic test that were able to benefit their health, without being discriminated. These laws also allow for people to participate in research studies without being afraid of their DNA information being passed on or used against them to their health insurer or workplace.
This article talks about the new facial recognition technology being used to identify intellectual disabilities in younger children. About 70% of people that have an intellectual disability and have gone for genetic testing, will still be undiagnosed due to the poor technology that used to be used. Now in a world first, geneticists will be able to identify whether a child has an intellectual disability based on their facial appearance compared to their parents. This program helps to find others in the world with similar facial features to identify the rare genetic condition they have.
This article is roughly 1 month old and was published on the 5th of April, 2018. Genetics was briefly mentioned when using parents faces to identify the child’s conditions but overall it talked more about the new technology being used to recognise rare genetic conditions in early childhood. The person who wrote this article was Nancy Notzon who isn’t a scientist, but who is an online journalist. Although she isn’t a scientist, I believe she is qualified to talk about genetics as it is evident she has researched well to provide us with reliable information on new facial recognition technology. The information that was presented in this article seemed true as there was evidence to back it up such as the program being used for facial recognition. The author referenced all the pictures and videos shown in the article and also included an external link to ABC Catalyst. This article was written to explain the importance of discovering new technology we can use to help people with rare genetic conditions around the world, and I believe it was made to share information about science.
Overall, I would say the article I used and researched would be a suitable, useful and reliable article to read as it explained and presented lots of interesting and new information about the future of discovering rare genetic conditions.
Bibliography
- Bright Hub. (2018). Genetic Testing vs. Genetic Screening. [online] Available at: https://www.brighthub.com/science/genetics/articles/111655.aspx [Accessed 28 May 2018].
- Impact-study.co.uk. (2018). Positive and Negative Aspects of Genetic Testing | IMPACT Targeted Prostate Cancer Screening. [online] Available at: http://www.impact-study.co.uk/public/geneticsandcancer/genetictesting/positiveandnegativeaspects [Accessed 24 May 2018].
- Mayo Clinic. (2018). Cystic fibrosis - Symptoms and causes. [online] Available at: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/cystic-fibrosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20353700?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=abstract&utm_content=Cystic-fibrosis&utm_campaign=Knowledge-panel [Accessed 28 May 2018].
- National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). (2018). Genetic Discrimination Fact Sheet. [online] Available at: https://www.genome.gov/10002328/genetic-discrimination-fact-sheet/ [Accessed 28 May 2018].
- Notzon, N. (2018). Facial recognition technology used to diagnose intellectual disabilities. [online] ABC News. Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-05/spy-technologies-used-diagnose-intellectual-disabilities/9619492 [Accessed 29 May 2018].
- Reference, G. (2018). What is genetic discrimination? [online] Genetics Home Reference. Available at: https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/testing/discrimination [Accessed 28 May 2018].
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