When it comes to planning to have children all parents want their babies to be born healthy. Imagine a way to check if your baby would be born with some type of disorder or disease before they are even born. Most people don’t know but there is a method of checking this which is called Genetic testing. This type of testing started around the year 2000 according to the National Human Genome Research Institute; they also define genetic testing as,
“Uses laboratory methods to look at your genes, which are the DNA instructions you inherit from your mother and your father. Genetic tests may be used to identify increased risks of health problems, to choose treatments, or to assess responses to treatments.”
In this essay I will be writing about what genetic testing is, the different types of testing done, the advantages of getting tested, and some of the disadvantages of getting tested.
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Carrier testing, which is used for partners wanting to know if they carry a gene for a disorder they might pass on to their baby like sickle-cell anemia and cystic fibrosis. This test is done before the parents decide if it’s a good idea to get pregnant or not. Prenatal screening is another method that can test babies already in the womb before they are born to check for diseases such as Down syndrome. Newborn Screening is the most common test which is done once the baby is born to check for the inherited genes. Cancer screening is used to check if older adults or children have a gene known to increase the risk of future cancer. According to Kids Health.Org the ways to test can be done by, “body fluids and tissues”, or for DNA screening, “only a very tiny bit of blood, skin, bone, or other tissue is