Currently, there are no U.S. laws requiring that prospective parents undergo gen

Question

Currently, there are no U.S. laws requiring that prospective parents undergo genetic screening or counseling. Genetic screening can detect whether prospective parents might be carriers of genetic mutations that can cause any children they have to develop a deadly disease. If prospective parents know there is a strong likelihood, or even a certainty, of their child being born with such a disease, they might instead decide to adopt a child or not to have a child at all.

A. First, is genetic screening something all prospective parents should do?

B. Second, do you think it should be something that prospective parents are legally required to do? In answering these questions, consider how some of the different moral theories or moral principles would help support your answer.

Explanation / Answer

A) The prospective parents could be given a choice to decide wheather they want to do genetic screening or not. They must be explained in detail about the implications of genetic screening. The presence of risk factors such as the age of woman, ethnic background and family history of genetic disorders could influence the decision of undergoing genetic screening.

B) Genetic screening should not be forced legally on prospective parents. Legal policy makers in genetic screening must take into account challenges in evaluating test results, including false-negative and false-positive results, overdiagnosis, ambiguities in the information provided by screening, and incidental findings. It will stigmatize individuals by shifting the focus from social, economic, and political decisions that affect the health of prospective parents to the presence of defective genes. Genetic screening is useful only in few individuals who are at risk of genetic diseases and it has only little positive value for normal person.

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