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Genetics Essay, Research Paper

Genetics: Issues of IVF, screening, pre-selection, genetic testing, cloning and the social implications.

James Watson once said, ?We used to think that our fate was in our stars. Now we know that, in large measure, our fate is in our Genes? (Jaroff 1998).

On June 26th 2000, The Human Genome Project will unveil its rough draft mapping of the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequences within the human chromosomes (genetic code), to the public. The project has been ongoing since the late eighties, and is a huge international exercise, which has so far cost approximately 3 billion dollars. The final draft is expected to be complete by the year 2003 and the assumption is that it will have a massive impact on the path of human evolution! (Hamilton, 1998).

Although we like to think that we are much more than the sum of our genes, our genes in large measure determine our abilities, our preferences, and our emotions (Berkowitz, 1996). This essay will look at the contemporary issue of genetics; it will examine its role in Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and how it is utilised for screening purposes in both in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and the diagnosis of disease. This essay will also discuss the ethical issues of sex/gender pre-selection, cloning, and the use of genetic testing for social purposes. These issues may have an enormous impact on whole families and the future of our children. Appleyard (1999) suggests that any forecast of the future must make one of two assumptions, either we manage this deeper genetic knowledge wisely or we do not. In the first case, we can be reasonably optimistic. In the second case, there need be no limit to our pessimism.

Genetics is a science, and the scientists are both influencing and influenced by contemporary culture. Therefore, the issues of genetics are framed in a response to current medical, social and political concerns. Nature has provided humankind with a way of reproduction since humans walked the earth. It has only been in the last thirty years, that scientists have learned to understand the complex processes involved in conception, and more recently, to manipulate them. Science has the techniques that can overcome natural infertility, and attempt changes in the genetic make-up of the babies that are desired. (Challoner, 1999)

In vitro fertilisation (IVF), where sperm and egg are brought together in a glass dish in the laboratory, is a term society has grown to use over the years. However, in recent years, this technology has exploded in all directions; into areas that were once consigned to the mind of the science fiction writer. On the 25 July 1978, the first ever human was born, having been conceived outside of the mother?s body. Her name is Louise Brown and her very existence heralds the pioneering techniques of Professor Robert Edwards and his colleagues. (Challoner, 1999). However, no other subject in medical science receives more critical attention from both government and the media than reproductive biology and genetics. The research on human embryos created by IVF is considered by some critics to be the most disturbing of all, and although science believes it is never undertaken lightly, and even helps researchers to understand why most embryos fail to thrive or are prone to abnormalities, many countries have forbidden such research. (Gosden, 1999).

For example, Wilkie (1998) noted that in 1998, a moratorium was called in Switzerland, concerning the creation of genetically modified organisms, but in this instance the country voted against a total ban. In Britain, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act (1990) permits embryo research under licence, but only for up to fourteen days after fertilisation. In Britain alone, more than 30,000 babies have been born as the result of IVF, (Challoner, 1999) and for couples who are desperate for children of their own but are otherwise unable to have them, successful IVF brings a course of profound satisfaction.

Whether a child is conceived via natural or IVF methods, the issue of screening is always at the forefront of any parent or health practitioner?s mind. The last two decades have seen a massive increase in the use of prenatal diagnosis. Some form of screening or testing is now offered routinely to every pregnant woman in the UK.

Prenatal diagnosis and screening is often presented as a routine part of antenatal care, but in fact it raises significant ethical dilemmas that need to be addressed. Prenatal testing and screening allows foetuses with varying degrees of disability or lethal conditions to be identified, (BMA 1998).

According to the BMA (1998), this prenatal genetic screening has been offered by health authorities in the UK for over twenty years. It is frequently used as a means of identifying those at a higher than average risk of having a child with a disability so that the parents may be offered genetic testing to give more specific information about the health of the foetus and define the risk for future pregnancies. Prenatal screening might be by family history, serum screening, molecular tests, or ultrasound. Ultrasound scanning is currently offered routinely to all pregnant women in the UK and, although it is undertaken to monitor the development of the foetus, it can detect both major and minor defects.

Often genetic screening is offered as ?routine? with an assumption that all women will accept it. There is a fear that some women may accept screening unquestioningly, without considering the implications of the information that will be made available. Any decision about whether to opt for prenatal screening or genetic testing must be based on good quality, objective information. Marteau (1995) emphasises both the ethical and the psychological necessity of such information being provided. Medical ethics generally assumes that encouraging informed

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