My Opinion On Genetic Screening
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
Nation-wide surveys state that over 85% of the people in Canada support genetic screening I am one of them. Genetic screening, defined as "the use of specific assays to determine an individual's genetic status", is a good way of helping people with certain disorders, such as Down's Syndrome, Breast Cancer, Polycystic Kidney Disease, Phenylketonuria and even Alzheimer's1. People, working with toxic materials, will not suffer under any possible radioactive damages anymore2, couples will be less likely to get a disabled child3 and testing might prevent costly methods of treatment for the patient. Not only that genetic screening can improve some medical conditions, it is also used in court trials to identify a criminal (e.g. in case of a rape)4.
The reasons that cause people to doubt the benefits of genetic screening, are the lack of privacy and an increasing rate of abortion. Those, however, are no facts, but just myths that came into being because of misinformation! In reality geneticists have to assure absolute privacy when treating people. The information collected is not being given to third parties, which include employees, doctors and lawyers, in order to prevent genetic discrimination5...