Question

Should genetic screening or testing be mandatory for any disease? Support your answer.

Answer 1

Genetic testing is the process in which the DNA which carries out the body functions is tested. The Genetic testing helps to reveal the changes which is happening in the DNA that can cause any illness or disease.

Genetic testing can provide information for diagnosing, treating and preventing the illness, there are still some limitations.

Diferent types of genetic testing are done for different reasons. These are the following:

• Diagnostic testing: Genetic testing can be used to confirm some diseases like cystic fibrosis.
• Presymptomatic and predictive testing: If there is any family history of any diseases, genetic testing will help in finding out if there is any risk for getting the diseases.
• Carrier testing: If there is any family history of any diseases like sickle cell anemia, or thalasemia or if you are in the ethnic group that has high risk of getting such diseases, carrier testing can be done to find out if you or your partner is a carrier of such disesase.
• Prenatal testing: This test is done is pregnant women to help to detect if the baby has any kind of genetic disorder like Down syndrome or Trisomy 18.
• Newborn screening: This is a very common type of testing done in all new borns. This test can be done to know if there is any genetic or metabolic disorders in the baby so that the treatment can be started right away.

All these shows that the genetic testing is very important so that early detection of genetic disorders can be done and also early treatment can be started to prevent further complications.