Determining the recurrence risks in genetic counselling is very important. Risk of being affected by a particular genetic disorder is based on the genetic nature of the disorder and the pedigree of the particular family being counselled. The family member being counselled is usually a relative of the proband. Risks for single gene disorders can be estimated by using basic Mendelian principles, while the risk calculation might be complicated in disorders with decreased penetrance, variability of expression or in diseases caused frequently by new mutations. Bayesian analysis can be used in these cases to analyse information about the particular family being counselled and determine the increase or decrease in previous mendelian risk. Let us consider …show more content…
The important tests to be done, along with pedigree are the following:
A Complete Blood Count along with all red cell indices.
An HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) and IEF (Isoelectric focussing - electrophoresis) are also done.
A confirmatory testing is performed of all results where abnormal haemoglobin is detected, on the original blood sample using a different technique from the screening test.
State the major ethical and policy issues in medical genetics.
Medical genetics has come to be accepted as a boon to this phase of the Earth, but it has its disadvantages and controversies. Three cardinal principles are cited in the discussion of ethical issues, which are beneficence (doing good for the patient), respect for individual’s autonomy (safeguarding the individual’s rights to control his or her medical care and be free off coercion) and justice (ensuring that all individuals are treated equally). When these principles are in conflict with each other, complex ethical issues begin to arise.
The ethical and policy issues usually faced by a genetic counsellor are:
Genetic testing
Prenatal diagnosis, especially for non-disease traits or sex.
Testing for genes that lead to late - onset
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One reason is that physicians’ duty to protect patient confidentiality is stronger than their duty to family members with whom they have no patient-physician relationship.
Describe the eugenic and dysgenic effects of medical genetics.
A basic understanding eugenics and dysgenics is that, eugenic leads to genetically healthier population, while dysgenics promotes a population carrying mutant hazardous alleles.
As Francis Galton said, Eugenics is the improvement of the population by ‘selection’ of its best specimens for breeding.
There are two major difficulties involved in planning a eugenics program:
The scientific problem of determining which characteristics or traits are truly heritable and to what extent heredity contributes to the particular trait.
The ethical issues involved in determining who will decide when one trait is better than the other and how reproductive behaviour can help further the eugenics program.
Dysgenics is the deterioration of health and well - being of the population by promoting the accumulation of deleterious alleles.
This program increase the incidence of harmful genes, and is highly unfavourable.
Paper 2 A person who owns a small portion of someone's genes may be the deciding factor on whether a person's illness is further researched or put on hold. Should a person be given this much power over our very genes inside us whose research could save lives and cure diseases? A physician, Michael Crichton, who wrote “Patenting Life” and a economist, John Calfee, who wrote “Decoding the Use of Gene Patents” both discuss this medicinal dilemma.
The public is opposed when screening includes traits unrelated to health diseases such as the selection of hair and eye color, height and other enhanced characteristics. 4. Many want the government to determine and set in place what is acceptable and unacceptable in Pre-implantation genetic
Chapter 1: How and why eugenics became popular before Nazism "Science would provide an even firmer foundation for morality than religion had"-Ernst Haeckel- Uber die heutige Entwickelungslehre im verhaltnisse zur Gesamtwissenschaft Eugenics is one of the oldest practices our world has, from Pre-Galtonian philosophies famously presented by Plato, to the Nazi regime. The book "The Origin of Species" shock the world with it publication in November 1859 with the famous doctrine of evolution- though this theory had been well known long before this point. Darwin’s theory had led the way to a "radical departure from the traditional ways of grounding morality” (Weikart, (2004) P21) and therefore human nature had been called into question. In the Metaphysics of evolution
Dylan Crowe Ms. Cross EH103-01 27 March 2022 A Defense of the Moral Principles of New Eugenics Eugenics was once a well-respected and accepted scientific field, yet, now, it is viewed with scorn and distrust. Throughout the early twentieth century, the ideas of eugenics were widespread, with many nations, such as the United States, implementing various elements of it with the goal of enhancing their nation's populace. However, during the 1940s, it became untouchable after some began questioning the ethics and morality of improving humanity through selective breeding and the methods used by Nazi Germany in furtherance of genocide and racial hygiene.
As discussed in the article, the ethical issues surrounding pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PES) are genetic fatalism and the 'new' eugenics movement. Drawing on these concepts and my stance on the interconnection between Eugenics and PES, this essay argues that selecting genetic traits through PES is unethical. This essay's argument will be achieved by first discussing the context of the article. Secondly, in an isolated analysis, I will discuss how genetic essentialism and fatalism can potentially undermine the autonomy and dignity of individuals whilst using a phenomenological framework and discussing choices involved in one's life. Then I will discuss the issue of 'new' eugenics, a free market system of eugenics, which can lead to further social inequalities for those deemed less desirable.
Ethics of Genegeneering Investigate and discuss how a society based on producing ‘designer babies’ may or may not create more happiness and greater benefits for the greater number of people. Refer to the film Gattaca, Jeremy Bentham’s Hedonic calculus, the principles of Utilitarianism and the work of Emmanuel Kant in your discussion. One of the most interesting biomedical advances in recent years, which also brings about great social repercussion is preimplantation genetic screening, which has two uses, producing babies free of genetic or hereditary diseases and the production of so called ‘designer babies.’ The 1997 film Gattaca addresses the ethical issues as well as social repercussions brought about from preimplantation genetic screening
Over two thousand years ago, Plato wrote in his work Republic ideas about selective breeding, a concept that seemed, at the time, like something akin to science fiction. Millennia later, science fiction became science fact as a new form of science emerged, combining the principles of heredity with social values of human perfection: eugenics. Eugenics can be defined as the process of enhancing future generations through the perpetuation of positive heritable characteristics and the termination of those heritable characteristics deemed negative (“Eugenics”). The status of eugenics has, over time, oscillated, but despite this, aspects of its ideology endure to this day.
“A lie told often enough becomes the truth. ”- (Vladimir Lenin). Although the definition of eugenics is, “the study of how to arrange heritable characteristics regarded as desirable,” its outcome always ends in destruction. In breeding, anti miscegenation laws, birth control, sterilization, abortion, and infanticide all stem from Eugenics.
Eugenics is used as a factor to differentiate people, opposed to eugenics being used to improve people as it usually is. These mutations, or deviations in this case, are what cause people to differ from “the true image” and be banished to the Fringes. However, deviations are not restricted to just humans, but are also common in plants but with a few differences. As David says, “They were things which did not look right — that is to say, did not look like their parents, or parent-plants”(19), are the main differences that everybody learns about. Eugenics is not common today, but nowhere near the mutations that were caused by a nuclear war.
Eugenics is a marvelous thing, with many good and bad sides to it, but in the end the bad heavily outweighs the
Editing of the human genome in the past has been only a sight seen in dystopia works such as Brave New World. Now, genetic enhancement is a prevalent today and people are beginning to realize the issues that can arise from creating these designer babies. Gene editing can be helpful to eradicate life changing disabilities. Yet, the term disability does not correctly label these differently abled people, as the idea of what is considered disabled has changed overtime. To fully understand the consequences and implications of genetic selection and enhancement of human embryos, society must mature and declare lines of what is and is not ethically moral.
There are a few appealing aspects to the act of eugenics. If eugenics were applied, the world could potentially see a decrease in disease, a rise in intelligence, and heightened physical aesthetic in humans. But, ethically it crosses many boundaries that have prevented this idea from going into world-wide effect in the past. A benefit to eugenics is it could lead to the reduction of genetic diseases in the gene pool.
There has been much debate over altering D.N.A in the next generation of citizens. Many people are disagreeing over the ethics involved with gene editing. Using fairly new technology, Crispr-Cas 9, scientist can now alter D.N.A to eliminate some life threatening diseases and mutations by cutting out unhealthy strands of D.N.A, and replacing it with new ones. More controversially, scientist now have the power to change external appearance and character traits of babies, also know as “designer babies.” Genetic engineering should only be used in most dire situations, only to cure life threatening diseases.
According to the article “ Genetic Counseling as a Tool for Type2 Diabetes Prevention: a Genetic Counseling Framework for Common Polygenetic “ found in the National Society of Genetic Counselors journal , the authors state that .. The purposes of genetic Counseling are to collect the results of genetic testing with explanation a medical and family history , to present education and information for genetic disease. In addition , they believe that genetic Counseling gives many choices for patients to prevent or reduce genetic disease. The authors show that the result of genetic testing can drive the person of healthier habits . Also, the article point that the framework that a provided within the article was developed to provide genetic Counseling
Sharing of genetic risk information obtained from genetic tests greatly impacts both individual and family members bringing the bio-ethical dilemma to clinicians as well as patients. Disclosure of genetic risks has been regarded as an obligation or duty rather than a mere personal issue. This paper addresses the logical arguments over the right not to know about genetic risk, while focusing towards the responsibility to share such genetic risk information with others. This paper proposes that the rise of new molecular ethics resulting from advancements in genetics emphasizes that people have an ethical obligation to have the test, be aware of the risk and communicate that data to others. In order to identify the principal arguments for and