Will My Son Develop Cancer? The Promise (and Pitfalls) of Sequencing Children’s Genomes

Summary: This article from the Time Magazine website is on sequencing children’s' genomes. It talks about the possible benefits and the possible nightmares for parents. As the cost of sequencing entire genomes is spiraling down (from $2.7 billion to only $7500), genetic sequencing is become available in ways other than helping people with mysterious illnesses. The possible future is that genetic sequencing will be used in all newborns. Not only that, but it could even be available in drugstores. With this possible future looming, it can be possible to know the future of every newborn, what diseases they will have and possible disorders. This knowledge brings up a possible dilemma for parents. Is it worth knowing you child’s future? Most parents want to know as much information as possible about their kids. But would they want to know that their child will have a debilitating disease. If they know that their child will have a disease, they have the most time to prepare and possibly even prevent the disease from happening. But no parent wants to know that their child will have a disease is "x" number of years. How will parents react to being notified that their child is at risk for something? Another question brought up in this article is how much of the information gained by parents from sequencing their child should be shared to that child? What if a child was told that he/she would get cancer later on in their life? How would they react? And how would a parent manage knowing this without telling their child? All of these questions result from the knowledge gained from genetic sequencing. But some researchers believe that sequencing newborns is much bigger than the individual itself. They believe that it can help identify certain genetic changes that can be addressed early in life, and learning what causes diseases hill help everyone. Knowing what conditions we are predisposed to can lead us to taking preventive steps, and researchers believe that the best place to start is at birth. In the end this article is about what knowledge genetic sequencing gives us, and with the availability of sequencing genomes becoming more available and cheaper; would you want to know your child’s future knowing that there may be something bad in it? It ponders how humans will react and what types of decisions they will make regarding their children.

Relavence:

We have talked in class about the use of technology in genetics, and we have learned about the human genome project and sequencing DNA. This article revolves around this topic of genetic sequencing. It talks about how when the Human genome project cost 2.7 billion dollars and how now it only costs 7500 dollars to sequence a genome. We can see the progression in how far genetic sequencing has come. We have also learned about the link between genes and mutations, cancers, disorders, and diseases. This article talks about how through genetic sequencing, we can know the future of possible mutations, cancers, disorders, and diseases.

http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/22/will-my-son-develop-cancer-the-promise-and-pitfalls-of-sequencing-childrens-genomes/
Bonnie Rochman
10/22/2012