Saturday, November 23, 2019

Parents Test Their Children's DNA in China




https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612976/china-parents-genetic-testing-for-kids-talent/
Related article:
https://www.livemint.com/news/world/chinese-parents-test-dna-to-see-if-kids-will-be-smart-11574266331105.html

In China, there are clinics that are opening in cities that claim they can find children’s talents within their DNA. These clinics claim to test traits such as musical, mathematical, and reading abilities, physical talents, introversion, extroversion, and memory. Although there is not much science behind these tests for accuracy, “talent testing” contributes a lot to China’s fast-growing genetics industry. Several clinics claim that they get about 100 to 200 parents testing their children’s DNA each week. Most parents that do the "talent testing" want to know what their children's abilities are so that they could become prodigies in that specific area instead of making their child/children pursue things that they are not necessarily good at.

Image result for genetic testing in china

I'm curious as to what other people think about these parents paying thousands to get their children “talent tested” with almost zero science backing the accuracy of these tests. I appreciate the intentions of these parents, I like how they want their children to succeed in areas they are good at and to pursue their natural-born talents, but I personally do not think it is worth it. I do not think it is worth it because there are still no scientific explanations for the relations between the genome and a lot of traits. I also am not fond of the idea of already knowing what your child is good at through a genetic “talent test”. If I were a parent I would want to learn along with my child through experience what his or her talents are instead of knowing everything right off of the bat. This article also sparked my curiosity about the future, if these tests become global and easily accessible by anyone once there is more scientific explanation for them, how will our society react to them?

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