Genetic Screening Persuasive Essay

Obesity is a condition where a person has accumulated so much body fat that causes a negative effect on the person’s health. A person is considered obese if their bodyweight is at least 20% higher than it should be for the age and height. Obesity often leads to other health diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, osteoarthritis and cancer. It was believed that obesity occurred because of environmental factors and diet; however, over the past couples of years, scientists have potentially discovered an obesity gene and believe there might be a cure or way to discover if someone will obese through the use of genetic screening. To understand how a person can detect the obesity gene through genetic screening, a person must understand what a gene is and what is genetic screening and how it works. A gene is the coding region of DNA, which contains the instructions for building the proteins that are responsible for each inherited trait. In fact, there are several versions of each gene called alleles, that give a trait more than one potential physical appearance. Genes are scattered along an organism’s DNA strand and can vary greatly in length. Within a species, the gene for a particular characteristic is always found in the same location on a particular chromosome.

Genetic screening for obesity can help plan for the consequences of the disease and help families plan for babies, either through adoption or birth; however, it can also cause mental stress since not everyone will become obese or the fear of become obese will cause them extra stress. In Canada people are fortunate to have free health care, but can be costly for people in the USA and other countries, especially to those who are underprivileged. Genetic screening can benefit people because it may motivate people to reduce their intake of unhealthy foods and learn strategies to deal with their risk of increased