How many dates before you request prenatal genetic testing?

It can be devastating to learn that your child has a disease, whether it is a deadly one, a potentially deadly one, or one that will impact her daily life for the rest of her life. There is already a lot of controversy around prenatal screening and diagnostic tests that can be used to test for possible congenital, genetic or chromosomal conditions because of the fact that some parents may choose to terminate the pregnancy because of the test findings.

But what if you could find out much earlier?

The developers of a new test, described in the NPR article New Gene Test Screens Would-Be Parents, will allow couples to be screened for up to 580 disease genes to find out if they are carriers or not.  Apparently the average person carries two or three mutations that could cause a severe childhood disease and if their partner carries that same gene, then the risk of having a baby with that disease is much higher.

The developers of the test are promoting it as something that couples would use prior to trying to conceive a baby.  Apparently in some instances, there are measures that could be taken to ensure that the couple won't have a baby with a particular disease (this has apparently been successful in eliminating Tay-Sachs in people with Eastern European Jewish Ancestry). In other cases, I guess the information would allow people to consider options like adoption, egg or sperm donors, or opting to remain child free.

But will it go further than that? Will tests like this  one day play into our choice of a mate?

To some extent, genes probably already consciously or unconsciously play a role when people choose a mate. People may look for a mate who is equally attractive or equally intelligent and certainly genes play a role in those types of things. But will people soon start requesting this type of genetic testing before things get too serious? Why not go for testing for sexually transmitted diseases and genetic conditions all before the third date? Or will we one day use an iphone app containing our DNA profile so that it can alert us of potential good genetic matches or warn us of potential bad genetic matches before we even say hello?

Is this taking things too far? I'm not a religious person, so concerns about humans "playing God" don't really concern me. However, I do believe there is a lot of value in the plurality of the human experience. I think that our world gains a lot from the different type of people who grace the earth and I think it would be our loss if we started eliminating certain types of people because they are less genetically desirable. I'm sure there are many parents of children with genetic conditions who wish that they didn't have those conditions and that they didn't have to suffer. However, if the alternative was not having ever met that child at all, how many would choose that option?

I'm an early adopter of technology and I support medical advances, but I find this a bit scary. What will happen to us if people start choosing a mate because of their genetic profile rather than because they want to wake up next to that person each and every day for the rest of their lives, even if it does mean waking up to care for a child with a genetic condition?

What do you think?

Image credit: shannon abigail simbulan on flickr

Comments

[Karen L]

Annie, I, too, am pleased that we have universal health care in Canada; however, it's not completely comprehensive. There are lots of sometimes catastrophic out-of-pocket expenses for medical treatments and other supports for people with special needs - think orphan drugs, private education for people with autism, home care ...

[Karen L]

Oops, sorry Annie. It is sad that I couldn't even finish reading your 3-sentence comment, which pretty much said what mine did.