The Pros And Cons Of Genetic Counseling

Genetics is a very wide world that tells us so many different things each time we use it from medicine to agriculture. However now we are going to focus on the ones that are relevant to the genetic counseling which has been continuously complicated in the people’s minds: protecting ourselves from some genetically risky diseases or creating several plans for the prevention & retardation of inevitable conditions.
Genetic counseling is defined as a branch of genetics that deals with the “human problems associated with the occurence, or the risk of occurence of a genetic disorder in the family” (Heller, 2005), but is this the only thing genetic counseling does? Genetic counseling – as apparently its name implies– is done successfully with the coordination

It seems pretty easy, but still there are some complications. DTC test kits have the potential of being uninformative or indeterminate, being utilized inappropriately, giving results that can cause misinterpretation and lack of necessary follow-up. Moreover, she may be misled by the results of unproven or invalid tests and could make important decisions about treatment or prevention based on inaccurate, incomplete, or misunderstood information about her genetic health (Marietta and McGuire, 2009). On the other hand, she has a few personal rights as a consumer. Research shows that members of the public are concerned about their genetic privacy and worry about being discriminated against because of their genetic susceptibility to disease (Hall et al, 2005). Even though there are strict laws about the punishment of discriminating people according to their genetic information, the implementation of it is at issue. Also, we don’t know how much privacy these companies provide to their consumers, how much we are safe. Therefore, in our case, she might be enthusiastic to have the results secretly, but she has to reconsider all the potential harms and risks of DTC genetic

Firstly, the genetic counselor will determine what benefits can be gained from performing a genetic test before ordering it (Marietta& McGuire, 2009). Then, she will safely go through a process in which she will be informed carefully by the proven and valid test results. Afterwards, the genetic counselor will interpret the results and guide her to take necessary precautions if the results are positive, which is what we want as the consumers. The most important thing in this process is to get correct and beneficial information from a medical professional in that specific field, since the problem of unreliable and uninformative information is