Human Genome Project

Genetic engineering has developed and blossomed at a frightening rate in the last decade. Originating as merely an area of interest for scientist, genetic engineering has now become an area of which all people should be somewhat knowledgeable. Genetic testing is a major concern when it comes to health care, a child’s welfare and parent’s choice. The results of these test can create comfort as well as difficult situations for patients and there families. For all the reasons I know genetic discrimination is a problem in our society, both now and in the past.

Discrimination based on the presence of a disability has always been an issue of great concern. Less-known types of discrimination are emerging due to the increasing use of genetic tests that can reveal the presence of defective genes. This new phenomenon is called genetic discrimination. It occurs when people are treated differently because they have a disease gene or genes, even when they show no sign or symptoms of disease. Men and women who are carriers for a genetic condition may also be discriminated against because of their potential to possibly have a child with a genetic disorder.

In researching this paper I found in Newsweek magazine a fairly new December issue. A boy named David was taken to the doctor at the age of two. David’s doctor suspected the boy to have the Fragile X syndrome. In suspicion the doctor ordered the proper tests and confirmed the child was positive for the illness. The parents where devastated and it took them a long time to grasp the fact there soon had this problem. That right there effected this family emotionally. When the family came back to follow on some tests the mother saw on the child’s insurance portion of the chart FRAGILE X wrote really big. Not long after getting home and putting two and two together she received a phone call terminating her son’s health insurance plan. That is a prime example of genetic discrimination.

Eugenics to me is wrong and people need to let things happen naturally. The word its self means the science that deals with the improvement of races and breeds, especially the human race through the control of hereditary factors. That definition is right is a science and it is for the improvement of human culture it does not state that it is a philosophy. It produces knowledge, can be measured, can be verified and must have desirable net effect. If it does not meet those requirements it can not or will not be used.

In the past due to the lack of knowledge in genetics people thought if it worked on animals it would work on humans, they where wrong. The point being just because it was used wrong then doesn’t mean it would be used wrong today. The world is far more advanced than it was 10 years ago.

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