Introduction to Genetic Testing: Currently, genetic testing is a voluntary test. It is taken to identify the presence of a gene that causes disease or to identify mutations that can lead to a disease. Chromosomes, proteins, and genes are tested through several different methods, including molecular, chromosomal, and biochemical methods. Some have argued that it should be required for all babies. On one day in 1993, every child born that day in the state of Pennsylvania was tested for several diseases, including muscular dystrophy, which could lead to death early in life. A panel of geneticists, lawyers, genetic counselors, pediatricians, and ethicists all were asked their opinion on this, and they recommended that this mandatory screening should be avoided since there was hardly any …show more content…
He claims,''Insurance companies should have access to the results of tests when people come to them voluntarily for coverage.'' Raymond then goes on to reason, stating that since most people get insurance coverage through their employers, it only affects a small amount of their clients. Questions Raised: While analyzing this topic, the following new questions arose: If a woman gets pregnant before having this test and then find out about the disease or genes that can cause disease which they will be passing on to their child, could it lead to abortion? If this happens to a significant amount of couples, could this raise abortion rates? Although these questions raise questions that lead to negative outcomes, there are also positive outcomes. Knowing these genetics could potentially lead to more research in new medicines because so it will normalize the study of genetics in the medical field.