Friday, December 5, 2014

New Parents Favor In-depth Genetic Testing

A Boston survey found that new parents are interested in having their newborn baby undergo in-depth genetic screening to learn about potential health risks.  Newborn babies currently get blood tests that screen for about 30 heritable and treatable conditions. The researcher's found that 83% of parents surveyed within the first 2 days of their baby's birth were interested in in-depth genetic testing for their baby. In-depth genetic screening is also well known as genomic testing, which has the potential to provide more comprehensive personal information than normal blood tests. The parents who took the survey were all similar regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, level of eduction, family history of genetic disease, or if it was their first child.




Harvard found that as whole-exome and genome sequencing is integrated into clinical practice, researchers are becoming more interested in providing in-depth health information for newborns that is not already known from standard blood screenings.
I believe advancements in newborn genetic testings is a step in the right direction. If parents find out the genetic sequence of their child at birth that can help treat a medical condition before it gets out of hand.



Article: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2014/12/04/new-parents-favor-in-depth-genetic-testing-survey-finds



6 comments:

  1. i agree that this early genetic testing will benefit the future of the children. First parents can make a choice if they are stable enough to have a child with problems and can be prepared for it.

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  2. I think this is a great early genetic testing and that it can benefit the newborns. This can be very helpful if there is a problem with the baby and there is a treatment for it. But the only problem I see with this is the cost of the testing.

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  3. Genomic testing will prove to be beneficial, and I agree with Hamad that it will be costly at first but I believe once this starts to pick up that someone will find a way to make this cheaper and more effective. Hopefully this will someday become a normal routine that the information would only be be kept between the family and the physicians.

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  4. Well this article makes a lot of sense. It appears that the modern parent now wants to know about the risks associated with the children they have so as to prepare for any medical toil they might go through. We are discovering new conditions and finding preventive treatment as time goes on. Me, I'm just going to adopt.

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  5. It's always in a parent's instinct to know what their child will be like and if they'll have any problems with their health when they're born or grow up. The costs will hopefully go down as the procedure gets more popular, since many parents will want to know that their kids will be healthy and safe.

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  6. I found this topic to be really interesting. I too have done a post on the same topic. I think it's smart for parents to undergo genetic testing and if they could afford the costs they should by all means test their future children.

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