The Genetic Testing Controversy

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A lot of controversial issues present themselves in psychology. Two topics that I will be discussing in this essay are the controversy over genetic testing and what things would be like without genetic testing. I will be describing what genetic testing is, and how it can affect an individual’s family life. I will be discussing the benefits of genetic counseling, as well as the positives without genetic counseling, and how this issue is debated in a psychological view.

Genetic testing, can affect a person’s life in many ways. Genetic testing is a type of medical testing that identifies changes that occur in chromosomes, proteins, and genes. These changes that occur can be associated, and often are associated with inherited disorders. In order understand genetic testing there has to be a clear understanding of the family history and previous medical records. The process of getting these records takes time and patience; and the records must be evaluated by all relatives involved. Knowing the health history is supposed to be the bases of genetic testing, but it more complicated than that. A lot of people utilize genetic testing because they believe that it is essential to know their own body, or a body that their bringing into the world. Parents can learn a lot of information that may be hard to handle. From there they can plan ahead or make difficult decisions. People may like to know problems or occurrences ahead of time, so they can figure out how to handle the situation taken into course. This may give parents a peace of mind and a sense of relief if they think there is a problem that has occurred. This can also help with future family planning, and how to handle future situations (Murza).

A perfect example of a fam...

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..., it shows that it is a main topic known in society. Even if genetic testing and not going through genetic testing can both be beneficial to society, it is a major controversy brought to the public’s eye.

References

Hawkins, A. K., & Ho, A. (2012). Genetic counseling and the ethical issues around direct to consumer genetic testing. Journal Of Genetic Counseling, 21(3), 367-373. doi:10.1007/s10897-012-9488-8

Murza, Tanya. Elizabeth, Stark. Edelson, Vaughn. (2012). Genetic alliance: should i consider genetic testing for my child?. : Global Communications, Inc..

Steventon, Jessica. (2009). A silent angel's story. : Global Communications, Inc.

Tarquinio, D. C., & Percy, A. K. (2011). Rett syndrome. In E. Hollander, A. Kolevzon, J. T. Coyle (Eds.) , Textbook of autism spectrum disorders (pp. 107-115). Arlington, VA US: American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.

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