Facts about Genetic research
Genetics, or the science of genes, seems to be the future of
modern medicine, and genetic research keeps gaining ground, but
together with the great benefits and cures it can bring, genetic
research poses a lot of moral and ethical problems, and it has
been said that it could even threaten our civil rights and
liberties.
If genetic research continues to develop, parents will be able
to have exactly the children they want, and they could plan his
life even before his birth. And is this 'right'?Other thing that
genetic research could lead to is genetic discrimination -
already a number of people weren't employed or assured because
of negative genetic predictions. Nowadays, because due to
genetic research employers, students and insurance companies can
perform tests on their subject in little time, so genetic
discrimination can be looked at as a problem. And it must also
be said that these tests are not too precise, they have their
limits, and they can't predict for sure if a mutation of the
genes will occur, or at what moment in life it will happen.
Furhermore, the tests can be influenced by the ienvironment.
Although genetic testing is not too precise yet, there were a
few discriminations done on genetic base until now.
For example, a boy's insurance was denied because it was found
in his genes that he has a predisposition to heart-attacks.
Also, the insurance of a 20-year old man was rejected because he
had a gene for Huntington's brain disease, although he was
perfectly healthy.
So, further discoveries in genetic research can do a lot for
medicine, but they can also lead to loss of privacy and
discrimination. Today, these last consequences of the
development of genetic research are neglected, and the public is
quite thrilled by the new discoveries genetic research and
genetic engineering brings to light.But only time will surely
tell what will happen in the new and mysterious domain of
genetic research