Question

Which options describe the purpose of genetic screening?

Answer 1

Answer:

to learn if an individual has a chance of developing genetic conditions later in life

to learn if an individual has a genetic condition

to learn if an individual has a chance of passing on a genetic condition

Explanation:

Genetic screening looks a selection of genes from an individual to identify variation or mutations that are associated with disease. This can be used to:

• learn if an individual has a chance of developing a genetic condition later in life. Examples of such diseases include Huntington's disease, or genetically-linked cancers such as BRCA-linked ovarian and breast cancers. Clinicians could identify patterns in a family and suggest that an individual might want to get tested for a disease-causing mutation, even if they don't yet have any symptoms

• to learn if an individual has a genetic condition  - genetic screening might be suggested if an individual has a collection of symptoms that are not explained, or might be associated with a particular disease. Genetic diseases often appear in childhood, so those undergoing this type of testing could be quite young.
• to learn if an individual has a chance of passing on a genetic condition if an individual with a genetic disease or a genetic disease prevalent in their family wants to have children, they might wish to undergo testing to see if they could pass on the condition. Genetic screening might even be used to select for embryos that don't carry the disease-causing mutation after fertilisation.
• genetic screening cannot tell if an individual has infections inside his or her body. Infections are a type of disease that are not caused by our DNA, and the testing will not be able to provide any information about infections or any other non-genetic health problems