Genetic discrimination
Genetic Discrimination is where a person is treated differently due to a difference in their DNA. This problem mainly occurs with insurance agency’s covering health and life insurance where the companies either charge the people extra or refuse them service as they are deemed to be more of a liability. But if the person did not partake in Genetic Screening/Testing then it would make Genetic Discrimination impossible for insurance agency’s to carry out
The movie “Gattaca” is a prime example of this in which the main character Vincent is forced to buy the identity of a person with good genetics and impersonate him in order to become an astronaut as people with poor genetics such as Vincent are refused. Included below is the URL for the trailer:
Aftermath of genetic screening/testing
Upon discovering that their unborn child is not one that is healthy, depending on the disease there is a high likely hood of it being aborted. There is also the concern of the psychological affects on the parents, namely the mother, as it is still their child and they now need to decide if they wish to keep the child or attempt to conceive again and produce a healthier “normal” child and also how each decision will affect them personally.
Having only completely healthy children can lead to a society of people looking and being similar or exactly the same
Health risks
Different types of Genetic Screening/Testing can lead to health risks, especially ones carried out on unborn children. For example amniocentesis is a procedure where a needle is used test a small amount of amniotic fluid from the woman’s abdomen. But this procedure carries a small chance (approximately 1 in 1600) of a miscarriage as does chorionic villus sampling (1 in 100), another procedure which involves removing a small piece of the placenta. Whilst these tests can provide the parents with useful information there is still the risk that a completely healthy unborn child (or a child that was healthy to an extend that the parents were happy with) could be miscarried due to these tests