April 26, 2024

Bioethics and language

An Indian doctor has coined a new term to describe screening and eliminating unborn children if they have genetic defects, preventive genetics”. Dr Sharad Gogate, of Foetal Medicine Consultancy Services in Mumbai, says that it is “a new clinical specialty which tries to reduce the serious impact of these genetic disorders on the individual as well as entire population”. With the mapping of the human genome, it will be possible to reduce the burden of genetic disease. She feels that if defects are not detected “at an early stage [they] can be most devastating for the individual, family and the entire society”.