Essay On Prenatal Genetic Testing
Introduction
Prenatal genetic testing, also known as prenatal diagnosis or prenatal screening, tests for diseases and disorders in a developing fetus or embryo. It is typically used for detecting Down’s syndrome or other chromosome abnormalities, spina bifida, cleft palate, Tay-Sachs disease, sickle cell anemia, thalassemia, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, and fragile X syndrome. There have been multiple ways to test for these diseases/disorders over the years, including (but not inclusive to) amniocentesis, ultrasonography, serum marker testing, and genetic screening Looking at the 20th and 21st centuries, we can see how prenatal genetic testing has changed from the 1930s to the present decades and how it will continue to change in years to come. Prenatal genetic testing is …show more content…
Genetics, which is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in living organisms, is part of prenatal genetic testing because all of the types of disorders listed above are passed down to the fetus by the parents due to different genes on the chromosomes. Prenatal genetic testing also touches on eugenics in past and even present years when dealing with whether to abort or keep the fetus. Eugenics is a movement that started in 1883 by Galton, to improve the genetic quality of the human race, increasing the advantages that human beings have. Hereditarianism has been linked to prenatal genetic testing, because it has been found that human nature and character traits can be passed down through the mother into their children genetically. Heritability is the statistic used in order to find out if a certain trait may be passed down from the mother to her children, most research has focused on intelligence and personality, however, most research has been taken from mothers and not the
Prenatal genetic testing, also known as prenatal diagnosis or prenatal screening, tests for diseases and disorders in a developing fetus or embryo. It is typically used for detecting Down’s syndrome or other chromosome abnormalities, spina bifida, cleft palate, Tay-Sachs disease, sickle cell anemia, thalassemia, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, and fragile X syndrome. There have been multiple ways to test for these diseases/disorders over the years, including (but not inclusive to) amniocentesis, ultrasonography, serum marker testing, and genetic screening Looking at the 20th and 21st centuries, we can see how prenatal genetic testing has changed from the 1930s to the present decades and how it will continue to change in years to come. Prenatal genetic testing is …show more content…
Genetics, which is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in living organisms, is part of prenatal genetic testing because all of the types of disorders listed above are passed down to the fetus by the parents due to different genes on the chromosomes. Prenatal genetic testing also touches on eugenics in past and even present years when dealing with whether to abort or keep the fetus. Eugenics is a movement that started in 1883 by Galton, to improve the genetic quality of the human race, increasing the advantages that human beings have. Hereditarianism has been linked to prenatal genetic testing, because it has been found that human nature and character traits can be passed down through the mother into their children genetically. Heritability is the statistic used in order to find out if a certain trait may be passed down from the mother to her children, most research has focused on intelligence and personality, however, most research has been taken from mothers and not the