Genetic testing is a complicated subject with many possible benefits and harms, especially for children. When a parent wants their child tested for genes linked to diseases that wouldn’t arise until adulthood, ethical issues are raised. Young children do not have say in what happens to them, and if they did have a gene linked to a disease they would not be able to fully understand what that meant. Once they did understand, they would have to live their whole lives with a dark cloud hanging over them, when they may never actually develop the disease. (sciencedaily.com). I think that genetically testing children for diseases that would not be diagnosed until much later in life is unethical because it doesn’t respect the child, and it has far …show more content…
“The law (…) recognizes parental authority over decisions relating to a child's education, nourishment, medical care, and general well-being.” (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). This is an important legal issue to consider that benefits children in many ways. However, parents forcing things like genetic testing on them does not respect their children. Young children often do not fully understand things like disease and death, and being told that they might get breast cancer and die could scare them very much. Even when they are older and do fully understand what this means, having the knowledge hanging over their head would affect almost every choice that they would make up to the possible diagnosis. (sciencedaily.com). I do not think that sentencing children to a life like that without their consent is unethical. However, I believe that if an adolescent is mature enough to fully understand what taking the genetic test would mean, what the possible outcomes would mean, understand how taking the test would benefit them, and do want to know what could lie in their future, there would not be an ethical problem. Adolescents may want information that could help them make future career and reproductive choices. Though they would still have to face living with bad news, some adolescents are mature enough to weigh the harms and benefits and make the choice themselves