DNA in modern day medicine
One of the newest technological developments, comes from the field of DNA research. Never before has there been so many data available for research on DNA and this resulted in a breakthrough. Doctors nowadays use simple tests to determent deviations in the DNA. For example: it is a common practice to check your unborn child for abnormalities in its DNA through CVS.
Score card
But because of the increase in data, scientist have discovered many more links between DNA and diseases. They now can accurately predict what you chances are of having a certain illness in the future. It is now possible to give people a ‘score’ based on your DNA. Cardiologist Amit Khera explains: “You’ll basically get a report card and it will say for these 10 diseases, here’s your score. You are in the 90th percentile for heart disease, 50th for breast cancer, and the lowest 10 percent for diabetes.”
Genetically labeling people
Doctors fear that this technology will be used to label people into different categories, which will eventually lead to insurance companies refusing certain clients because of their DNA. Also doctors fear that, with this new technology, DNA based IQ test will be done. This will result in discrimination solely based on some DNA test. These kind of test are called: “the worst possible kind of biologically determinist discrimination.”
Is there anything positive about this breakthrough?
But there is also an upside to this new technology: people with high risk of say breast cancer will also be more aware of their higher chance of getting ill. This will mean that there will be more efficient medicine, because people know if they have a higher risk or not and the scans can be done with much more accuracy. So there is an upside to these test.
Opinion
So, what do you think? Will the future ever be ready for these kinds of forecasts?
Source:
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610251/forecasts-of-genetic-fate-just-got-a-lot-more-accurate/
