Children and Genetics
January 30, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
The February 15th issue of the American Journal of Medical Genetics is devoted to children and genetics. My friend Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei of Eye on DNA highlights articles that, in various ways, are relevant in thinking about a genetic test for autism: Waiving informed consent in newborn screening research; on the ethical implications of including children in a large biobank for genetic-epidemiologic research; on the experiences of young persons regarding predictive genetic testing for Huntington disease (HD) and familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP); and on whether genetic testing for BRCA1/2 should be permitted for minors?.
What will it mean for families and relatives of autistic children to know that they might “carry” some of the genes that have so far been connected to autism?
I think genetic testing has pros and cons, but boy, just think of how soon we could start with therapies, most of these kids would probably never end up with huge deficts because intervention would happen so soon. I see the children at my sons’ school with Down Syndrome and how well they do, especially with language…and they all receive services starting at around 6 weeks of age.
Would it keep people from having children? Maybe, but if socities percieved perfection is what you want in a child, than maybe it would best you don’t have any.