For now, genetic testing can be used to help diagnose certain diseases, like Huntington’s disease and Cystic fibrosis, but in most cases there is no cure available and little that can be done to treat these diseases. Genetic testing is also used in criminal investigations. When it helps to identify a rapist or murderer, that is a benefit to society, but when testing is forced on a large group of innocent people to try to identify the

Overall, genetic testing poses some serious risks. There need to be laws put into place to hinder discrimination by insurance or in employment. The doctor/patient relationship needs some new guidelines that address the broader concerns of other family members at risk, yet preserves the patient’s right to privacy. The issue of how and when genetic information can be collected for law enforcement and how it is to be stored must be addressed. Better counseling of parents that respects both the parent’s beliefs and the child’s needs is needed. Until these issues are addressed genetic testing poses too many risks to be useful for the majority of people.

Parenting issues arise out of some aspects of genetic testing. Prenatal testing is a growing trend that brings with it several difficult ethical situations. There is the dilemma of whether or not to bring a baby into the world that may have serious medical problems either from the start, or sometime down the road. For those who believe that life begins at conception, the decision to end a pregnancy is equal to murder, but there have been cases where health insurers have refused to cover the medical needs of such a child, if he or she is brought into the world. For example, there was a case where an HMO told a woman whose unborn child tested positive for cystic fibrosis, that it would pay for an abortion, but if the baby was born it would not be covered under the family’s medical

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