Genetic Screening :: DNA Science Genes Essays

Genetic Screening Five year old Jacob Turner is a healthy boy without legion(predicate) cares in this world. His father takes sole care of him because his mother died suddenly. Genetic testing after death, showed a genetic mutation in Jacobs mothers genes that caused her to have an irregular heart. Unfortunately, Jacob has withal inherited this mutation, but fortunately, this disorder potful be controlled by medications. Now, Jacobs father has another problem. No insurance company will cover young Jacob because of his cognize heart irregularity. Situations like Jacobs are now a relatively common with the advent of genetic screening. People roll in the hay now whole tone into their genetic stupefy up to find out if they carry a deleterious gene or genetic predisposition to a complaint. No longer must more people with high risk families worry about whether or not they may contract the same disease as their ancestors. Diseases and disorders such as Huntington chorea, Alzheimers , quintuple Sclerosis, Muscular Dystrophy, Hemophilia, and some kinds of tailcer such as breast, colon, thyroid, ovarian, and skin can now be identified on a particular gene and can likely predict the probability of disease onset. But with this technology comes many physiological and ethical problems. Within this paper, I will define genetic screening, look at the controversial ethical viewpoints, and give a brief overview to this situation. Genetic Screening is a relatively new concept that is just now change state more widespread. In simple terms, the process uses techniques that enable the technician to identify mutant DNA in the persons genetic make up. If a mutant is found, medical precautions can be taken. If none is found, then it can be assumed that the person does not carry the deleterious gene and has the same risk of contracting the disease as anyone else in the population. The screening requires that a tissue sample distribution be taken from the individual to be tes ted. Where and what kind of tissue depends on the condition world screened. When screening for a specific cancer, tissue of that organ is most helpful. When screening for a noncancer disease, blood or urine will produce results. Because the tissue sample is small, a process called Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is used. PCR is a technique that enables more than a million copies to be made from a single strand of DNA. This can be done in a precancerous or cancerous cell. The copied DNA can then be hybridized.