Genetic testing is reducing genetic diseases in children
Filed under: Baby health — Alan @ 5:32 am
Some of the worst genetic diseases are starting to decline in the general population with a few almost disappearing completely due to the fact that genetic testing is becoming more popular before deciding if children are a good choice for couples.
In particular, Tay-Sachs, cystic fibrosis, and other odd disorders have decreased in number due to the increase of wider testing use. Clinical genetics chief of Columbia University, Dr. Wendy Chung, said that carrier screening has drastically reduced the presence of genetic disorders.
Chung stated that in the last five years she has only come across one case of Tay-Sachs, which is a neurological disease that forces children to lose their physical and mental abilities causing premature death to occur at the age of four.
Now most women’s routine prenatal care includes genetic testing causing many woman to terminate pregnancies when they find out the child is a carrier of one of these devastating diseases. In fact, a California study showed that the result of pre-natal screening is half as many babies are born with cystic fibrosis due to the fact that woman now choose abortion when it is diagnosed.
Embryo screening is also growing in popularity resulting in parents and fertility doctors carefully choosing embryos that do not carry any genes that are mutated and could possibly cause problems in children after birth.
Since 2006 embryo screening is on the rise over the last few years and becoming a common part of IVF according to reports from the Society for Associated Reproductive Techonology.
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