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Genetic Technology: Question 10

Syllabus 19.2

Multiple choice A2 1 mark

Which of the following is a valid social or ethical concern that has been raised about genetic screening for inherited disease?

Choose an answer to check it, then compare with the worked solution below.
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Worked solution

Working through the options

Genetic screening provides powerful diagnostic information, but exactly because that information is personal and predictive, it raises genuine social and ethical questions that examiners expect you to be able to discuss.

A genuine concern: a person’s genetic screening result reveals private information about their own (and potentially their relatives’) risk of a genetic disease. If this information became available to insurance companies or employers, it could be used to discriminate against the person (for example by charging higher insurance premiums, refusing cover, or avoiding offering them employment) even though many disease-associated alleles only raise the risk of disease rather than guaranteeing it. Protecting the confidentiality of genetic screening results, and deciding who is entitled to see them, is therefore a widely discussed ethical issue.

Checking each option:

  • A, correctly identifies confidentiality/discrimination as a genuine ethical concern raised by genetic screening. Correct.
  • B, describes automatic sharing of results with an employer as unproblematic; in reality this would itself be a serious breach of confidentiality and a source of ethical concern, not an argument that no concerns exist.
  • C. Incorrect on two counts: many disease-associated alleles indicate only an increased probability of disease, not certainty, and genetic counselling remains important precisely because of this uncertainty and its emotional impact.
  • D. Confuses genetic screening (a diagnostic test that provides information) with gene therapy (a treatment that can alter a gene); screening does not change a person’s DNA sequence.

Final answers

  • A. A valid ethical concern is that private genetic screening results could be obtained and misused by insurance companies or employers to discriminate against the person tested.