### science | biology | genetics:

Genetic research
* controversial issue that is becoming increasingly topical.
* creates information at an exponential rate.
* divides people.
* has countless applications in agriculture as well as medicine and other fields.
* is another area where thermophiles are used
  - further extension for the human mind to understand our own beings
  - one of the fastest growing areas of medicine in the nineties
* large part of the future of science and biomedicine.
* raises a complex range of legal, ethical and social issues for Indigenous peoples.
* shows that many diseases have their origin in tiny imperfections in genetic coding
  - schizophrenia is based on a genetic predisposition for the disease
* suggests there are also some right whales that have never been photographed.

### science | biology | genetics:

Genetic testing
* becomes more controversial when the health defect is more severe.
* broad and complex field.
* can affect relationships with family members
  - alert people to any predisposition to inherited diseases
* can also help to determine carrier status
  - lead to better risk management and more informed decisions
* can assist sound decision-making in a range of situations
  - wide range of situations
  - be as positive as it is negative
  - confirm the presence of an inherited condition
  - help ease fears that older women experience when they become pregnant
  - lead to discrimination
  - now determine if cattle carry genes for growing horns
  - often make the diagnosis at birth
  - seriously strain family relations
* can show whether a parent or child carrier of the mutated gene
  - the parents and extended family have the faulty gene
  - sometimes raise more uncertainty about the future than provide answers
  - tell parents a lot about their unborn children, especially health defects
* does occur in a range of different areas.
* ensures that a dog is pure-bred.
* has another important use besides screening for disorders and traits.
* involves potential risks as well as benefits.
* is able to identify individuals who are genetically predisposed to certain diseases.
* is an accurate way to predict disease
  - invasion of privacy
  - issue that brings many ethical and moral questions to light
* is available for many different types of inherited hearing loss
  - to detect mutations in members of high-risk families
  - done to search for the locations of genes
  - feasible to identify the diseased gene in a family
  - for the possibility of future disease in a currently healthy person
  - more likely to aid in diagnosis in families with multiple affected members
  - now available for a number of hereditary cancer syndromes
  - of limited value in family members in whom autoantibody levels are known
  - offered to all males with severe and otherwise unexplained very low sperm counts
  - one of the newest methods for predicating a person's health
* is performed for purposes other than medical treatment
  - on a small sample of blood from the interested individual
  - possible by looking for an expanded repeat in the gene
  - the most specific diagnostic test for harlequin ichthyosis
  - used primarily to confirm a diagnosis or to identify affected family members
  - useful for identification
  - usually something people view as a double-edged sword
  - valuable and allows people to know if they are carriers of certain genes
* offers the most accurate way to diagnose albinism.
* powerful tool that can be used for good or for bad
  - for many prurposes
* quick and painless way to establish paternity.
* raises a number of ethical issues
  - many important issues for individuals and their families