Diseases and DNA Testing

New genetic technologies and DNA testing for diseases

New genetic technologies developed by scientists are currently used in the treatment of diseases. The DNA test for diseases, particularly those with complicated and more widespread features like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes traits, is one such use. This essay will look at how DNA testing for diseases is carried out, ethical concerns and implications of its use, justifications for and against it, and how the conscience clause relates to it. DNA testing for diseases is done through analyzation of multiple genes of a human being to determine whether the person is at risk of developing a certain disease or disorder. Moreover, this test can also be used for screening and medical treatment of the identified diseases (Tsai, Cameron, Czerwinski, Mendez-Figueroa, Peterson & Noblin, 2017). Currently, the most common diseases that are being tested are cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Reasons that necessitate the DNA testing for diseases include, symptoms of diseases resulting from genetic changes, having a history of genetic conditions in the family and need to detect abnormalities in babies.

Ethical issues and implications of DNA testing

What are the ethical issues and implications related to your topic?

Most genetic disorders especially the adult onset diseases have long-term health problems and get worse over time. In case the disorder in question is not treatable and has no preventive measures, it becomes hard for medics to give the results to the patients, for patients to share the news with family members and insurance company. Therefore, there is an ethical dilemma of whether to avail information in cases where no intervention exists. Further, in the event of such fatal disorders, there some grave consequences such as the inability to obtain insurance and get promotion in place of work. Another ethical issue is undesired options after the test such as termination of pregnancy if the test reveals that the unborn baby has serious genetic conditions such as Downs’s syndrome (Tsai et al., 2017). In other cases, DNA testing results to discrimination, stigmatization and psychological harm if a person is found to be at the risk of genetic disorders such as Huntington’s disease, which has no cure (Olesen, Nor & Amin, 2016).

Arguments for and against DNA testing

What are the arguments for and against implementation?

One of the arguments for DNA testing is that it can help a doctor to subscribe a timely treatment that can assist the person to live longer and live a more productive life. Further, if a person is found to have a gene that causes a certain disease such as cancer, the person can modify their lifestyle to prevent the gene’s expression (Smagt, & Ingles, 2016). Another argument is that DNA testing can result in the development of knowledge that can assist scientists in discovering medicine for genes linked to diseases.

An argument against DNA testing is that it can lead to discrimination if one is found to be at risk of a certain disease since they are perceived to have weaker genes. Besides, the insurance companies can also discriminate and prevent such people from obtaining insurance covers and employers can fail to hire or promote such people. In addition, DNA testing for diseases could affect the reproduction patterns since people would use the method to select a healthy child and terminate pregnancies based on the DNA results (Tsai et al., 2017).

Personal viewpoint on DNA testing for diseases

What is your personal point of view on this topic? Are you for it or against it?

Personally, I view DNA testing for disease as a milestone in the field of health and medicine. This is because the test can aid in detecting a person’s predisposition to a disease (Smagt, & Ingles, 2016). Hence, they can seek the best medical care for their condition hence live longer. In addition, DNA testing for a disease can help identify carriers of specific disease-causing genes hence prevents further spread of the disease (Schrodi, Mukherjee, Shan, Tromp, Sninsky, Callear, & Crane, 2014). Hence, DNA testing should be allowed, and people should not fear to go for the tests since it can save their lives.

The conscience clause and DNA testing

How does the conscience clause apply to your chosen topic?

The conscience clause applies to DNA testing in that certain laws provide medics legal protection for failure to take part in personally objectionable procedures (Smagt, & Ingles, 2016). For instance, in some states, the law protects medical professionals from participating in proceedings that may result in abortion such as DNA testing for abnormalities in unborn children.

Conclusion

DNA testing for disease is one of the many technological developments in the field of healthcare. For people to determine their predisposition to a particular disease such as cancer and diabetes and to know whether their unborn baby has any disabilities they are carrying out the tests. Some people support the move since it can help save lives. However, others oppose it as it would lead to discrimination and change in reproduction patterns. Despite this, the technology is a significant move that can help patients, medics, and scientists in various ways.

References

Olesen, A. P., Nor, S. N. M., & Amin, L. (2016). Attitudes Toward Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) for Genetic Disorders Among Potential Users in Malaysia. Science and engineering ethics, 22(1), 133-146.

Schrodi, S. J., Mukherjee, S., Shan, Y., Tromp, G., Sninsky, J. J., Callear, A. P., ... & Crane, P. K. (2014). Genetic-based prediction of disease traits: prediction is very difficult, especially about the future. Frontiers in genetics, 5, 162.

Tsai, G. J., Cameron, C. A., Czerwinski, J. L., Mendez-Figueroa, H., Peterson, S. K., & Noblin, S. J. (2017). Attitudes Towards Prenatal Genetic Counseling, Prenatal Genetic Testing, and Termination of Pregnancy among Southeast and East Asian Women in the United States. Journal of Genetic Counseling, 1-18.

van der Smagt, J. J., & Ingles, J. (2016). Clinical Genetics. In Clinical Cardiogenetics (pp. 25-47). Springer International Publishing.