Thursday, February 14, 2013

Genetic Discrimination

[by William Phillips] The wide availability of personalized genetic evaluations for the average person reveals a myriad of difficult questions.

While it is unquestionable that the existence of these records would be a quantum leap for medicine, they also could potentially lead to problems within our current society. When does religion, and specifically the hand of god, come into play when altering his supposed creation through genetic manipulation? Similarly, how does the human mind react when knowing its fate? How do parents treat their children when genetic discrepancies occur,possibly rendering one more "perfect" than the other, or perhaps one "at risk." We also discussed privacy laws for genetic information, as well as if it was a good idea to disseminate that information to private sector business

8 comments:

  1. I went home and confided in my mom on our inability to come to a concrete "good or bad" answer for this. When I asked her, as a Christian, if she would take the precaution to give her children the best chance in this world, she never hesitated to say yes. I found it inspiring to know, as a future doctor, she still held faith in God's will to give doctors the ability and knowledge that is needed for the ever changing society.
    We, human, are revolutionized every day. For every new step, their is another problem created. That in itself should remind us medicine has to change as we, ourselves, change.

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  2. That's refreshing to hear about your Mum Heather. It's always nice to see science and religion not creating a clash when brought together.
    The part of our discussion that made me think the most was when someone brought up the dangers of knowing and not knowing about medical pre-tendencies based on genetics. The dilemma seemed to be split in two, one side being that if the disease or condition were treatable, religion permitting, parents would most likely be open to the idea of treating the child. On the other hand, if the child was likely to develop a condition that was not treatable, parents may become over-protective and possibly cause the child to live a different lifestyle than would have been permitted otherwise. This concept quickly branches out into what people believe about things like fate, and whether or not we would be interrupting some sort of powerful force if we were to pre-treat children for illnesses.

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  3. As a person with a strong interest in medicine, I of course favor the idea of allowing people to choose to know his or her genetic makeup. For many people, this information would be life-saving, but unfortunately at the same time, knowing the fate of some diseases could be debilitating.

    Something I thought about after class that our group didn't touch on too much was how this would affect health care. In an ideal world, the preventive care required (early screening, etc.) for those with certain genetic mutations would be covered under insurance. Realistically these people would likely have to pay more in insurance, would not be covered, or may even struggle to find a company that would accept them.

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  4. i am currently looking into a genome service (23&me) as just a general interest. some things i will have to look into and make inquiries is if they sell that information to anyone (insurance companies) or if they just do the sequencing and send you the results. i am not afraid if there are any possible adverse conditions that may occur. my feelings are that i would like to know so that if there is something that i can take measures to give researchers a pre-affected subject so they can see the before part of the equation so that if they can't help me they could possible learn more to help others. i don't feel these types of genome sequencing should become mandatory but it is a good tool to have. many years ago society thought we should not dissect humans as it was a violation of the sanctity of life, and some still have this ideology. society also was against blood transfusions, Cesarean birth, organ transplant, etc for fear that we were acting outside of the laws of nature. in time i hope genome sequencing becomes a tool as the above listed have.

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  5. Amber that is a really good point as far as how this would affect insurance. Could this information be used as grounds to reject applicants like pre-existing conditions can be today? As some of you have mentioned, the biggest question for me is about the availability of the results. I would think that they would have to be confidential to avoid genomic discrimination as well as to protect the simple right to keep personal health private.

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  6. Amber that is a really good point as far as how this would affect insurance. Could this information be used as grounds to reject applicants like pre-existing conditions can be today? As some of you have mentioned, the biggest question for me is about the availability of the results. I would think that they would have to be confidential to avoid genomic discrimination as well as to protect the simple right to keep personal health private.

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  7. Well, on the issue of releasing information to insurance companies and the private sector in general, and them being able to use it "against" you, the root of the problem is the system. I believe in America, under our current system, businesses have the complete right to your genetic information. Insurance companies SHOULD be able to deny people with pre-existing conditions, and therefore should have access to every individuals medical records in order to make informed decisions. I believe this because our current system is run on profit, and if our society's goal is profit, then we are obligated to do everything with our power to ensure progression toward and protection of said goal.

    If people want something different, they must first change the object of the game. Because no matter what emergent technologies allow for a better human condition, the public and private sectors will continually use them for economic gain, without taking "human rights", "ethics", or "improving the human condition" into account, because they don't have to, and under this system, shouldn't.

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  8. BTW@ Betsy and "Fate"

    Magic doesn't exist.
    I prove it every time I wake up from my dreams and can't fly.

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