Prenatal Testing
For many people, prenatal testing has opened many opportunities to treat potential illnesses and to save lives. Administering tests that involve visualization, ultrasounds and amniocentesis allow physicians and parents to identify illnesses and disabilities in children even before birth. More advanced surgical techniques have been used to treat babies even before they are born.
Many others, however, have expressed concern over the ethical implications of prenatal testing. While the treatment of diseases is a noble cause, many ethicists worry that prenatal testing will lead to a de facto form of eugenics. In these cases, prenatal testing could be used to screen out mild disabilities and other non-life threatening conditions.
This paper looks at the social implications of prenatal testing, with a particular emphasis on the definitions of disability and preferred genetic makeup. The first part is a look at the reasons why parents avail of prenatal testing techniques. These range from non-invasive processes such as ultrasounds to fetal tissue analysis. The second part of the paper then looks at the many advantages and arguments in favor of continued prenatal testing. In the third part, the paper examines the various ethical arguments against tampering with natural genetic development, including concerns that prenatal testing would cause a great increase in abortion rates.
In the conclusion, this paper argues that thee fears of ethicists regarding abortion and eugenics are remain merely conjectures and worst-case scenarios. However, the advantages in terms of in-utero surgery and early treatment are already available. In light of these two factors, prenatal testing should continue...
Abortion After Prenatal Testing Methods of Prenatal Diagnosis There are four methods of prenatal diagnosis that is available to women. The first and most commonly known is ultrasonography, colloquially referred to as "ultrasound." A picture of the fetus is developed through the implementation of sound waves. Ultrasound is used to identify abnormalities that are physically apparent such as deformed limbs, defective chest, and heart. During the fourteenth to sixteenth week of the
Editor, In his letter printed June 8, 2014, Alistair Pullen discusses the fact that the advent of prenatal testing has helped transform pregnancy from a time of joy to a time of fear. He discusses his wife's pregnancy with his first daughter, in which prenatal testing revealed the existence of a disorder that was incompatible with life. As a result of the testing, Mr. Pullen and his wife chose to
Moreover, some genetic testing is inaccurate, creating the possibility of false positives and false negatives. The second problem with genetic testing is that it can provide information about diseases where there is no treatment or intervention. This is the case for Tay-Sachs. There is no way to prevent the disease, which is fatal in children. However, unlike some other genetic disorders, the baby is born healthy and begins to deteriorate
Prenatal Care for the Homeless Families and children in the context of social change The Homeless Prenatal Program The goal of the Homeless Prenatal Program (HPP) in San Francisco is to break the cycle of childhood poverty by providing a variety of services to homeless families (Homeless Prenatal Program, 2010). The original and still primary service offered is prenatal and parenting support, in addition to housing assistance, training in personal finance and computer
Genetic Testing: Identifying Associating Issues This paper will examine Shelley Burtt's writing "Dilemmas of Genetic Testing" as well as other sources on the subject of genetic testing. After having examined the resources available an opinion will be formed as to whether genetic testing is positive or negative for the patient and the expected child. Genetic testing is becoming an option more commonly used by women during pregnancies to assess particular information concerning
Genetic Testing Prenatal diagnosis serves a variety of purposes and I believe in its fundamental purpose it is good. In some cases, prenatal genetic testing can lead to timely medical intervention to mitigate or eliminate disease such as with congenital adrenal hyperplasia or a-thalassemia. In some cases, prenatal diagnosis reveals a lethal condition, such as anencephaly, trisomy 13, or trisomy 18. The choice to do genetic testing in the beginning is
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