The Ethical Considerations of Genetic Screening :: Science Genes Biology Papers

Ever since Watson and Crick deciphered the biological code of life, scientists have been bad-tempered unraveling the mysteries of life. A recent development in the area of factortic interrogation has been the Human Genome Project (HGP). The HGP is a massive international effort to represent and era the entire human genetic code. The primary goal of this enquiry is to link certain distempers with abnormal genes that may be possessed by certain people. This would allow tecs the mightiness to screen individuals for certain diseases. This has already been a success with a number of conditions. PKU is a condition that causes awful retardation in children if nothing is done to prevent it, but by genetically screening the infants, doctors are able to tell who has the disease (Davis 1990). By simply altering the diet of these children, the mental retardation effects of the disease can be prevented. In addition, diseases such as Huntingtons disease, detractor cancer, and muscular dys trophy are presently being screened for in human (Jaroff, 1996).How researchers are able to screen for genesNew developments have given researchers the ability to decipher the genetic code of organisms. Some of the techniques that researchers use are RFLP ( hindrance take apart length polymorphism) analysis and deoxyribonucleic acid probes. RFLP analysis utilizes enzymes from bacteria that are judgement to be used as defense mechanisms against invading viral DNA. The enzymes instalment foreign DNA at specific locations depending on the base sequence (Griffiths, 1996). In order to analyze an organisms genome a researcher will add a certain restriction enzyme to DNA. This produces small restriction fragments of DNA that vary in length. Electrophoresis is then used to go to pieces out the various fragments of DNA. This is accomplished by subjecting the fragmented DNA to an electric charge after it has been placed onto an agarose gel plate. Due to differences in length, the DNA re striction fragments will be separated in the gel plate. other useful tool for scientists has been the DNA probe. A DNA probe is a piece of DNA that binds to certain sequences of the hosts DNA (Devore, 1998). The probe is able to do this because the DNA strand of the probe only binds to the appropriate DNA with a complementary sequence. Scientists label the probe with florescent markers or radioactive markers so that the gene of interest can be visualized. Often probes are used in conjunction with RFLP. After the organisms genome has been fragmented and electrophoresed, an absorbent membrane is placed everyplace the gel and the DNA bands are blotted onto the membrane (this technique is called Southern Blotting).