Would you want to know if your child will have an incurable disorder, whether it begin at birth or affect them later in life as an adult? It’s hard to say when of course the health of your child is at stake, but your own sanity might be in jeopardy (in the case of knowing your child will get an incurable disorder when they’re an adult). Harriet A. Washington raises some questions that are as equally compelling as they are frightening.

In June and July of 2012 a couple different teams from University of Washington Seattle and then Stanford University announced they had uncovered new techniques allowing the “construction of a comprehensive genome sequence– a genetic ‘blueprint’”, available in clinics in as little as three years from now. One test only needs paternal saliva or blood and the other only maternal blood to unveil their child’s DNA. DNA tests used to unearth conditions like Down’s syndrome and cystic fibrosis already exist, but not a whole genome test that would “predict the mere possibility of disease”.

Washington asks the questions “what is ‘healthy’ anyway?”, pointing out that “males with the chromosome disorder XYY were once thought to have a high risk of violent behavior” and sometimes fetuses with XYY chromosome were aborted. She also brings up that perceptions of disorders change over time, Down’s syndrome as an example, so will our future findings with a full genome test even be necessary or useful?

Of course, the test’s ethicality comes into question as well: “Who has a right to a child’s genetic information? Should there be regulations that compel a physician or the parents to alert siblings and others who may be at high risk of harbouring the gene?” False positives will arise, only scaring the parents and causing anxiety. And do the parents even have a right to this information or is that infringing on their child’s rights?

It’s a very attractive idea, looking into your childs future, possibly even opening a market for personalized medicine and preventive medicine, but it’s also kind of a scary idea. It seems to take away the mystery of life. I agree with Washington, at least it’s still a few years away, giving us some more time to think about it. Complete prenatal genetic tests are not far away and will be accessible for many, is that a good thing? Maybe yes, if it shows that your child will be susceptible to heart disease, then you would make sure to teach them to eat healthy foods and exercise. Would you want to know that your child has the possibility of getting a disease? You decide.

http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=OVIC&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&display-query=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Viewpoints&dviSelectedPage=&limiter=&u=psucic&currPage=&source=&disableHighlighting=&displayGroups=&sortBy=&zid=&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010641217

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-fetal-genome/