Genetic Screening The door opens and the doctor enters the room. The doctor has a frowning expression. He tells you they just received your tests from the lab and wants to refer you to a genetic counselor. Given the current trend of our society, many of us may face this situation in the future. But what does this mean for our lives, what can these tests really tell us? In this paper I will address what types of tests are considered genetic screening and what they can tell us, the ethical arguments floating around in the media today, and how you should embrace this new technology. What is Genetic Screening Many of the tests we call genetic screening are reserved for pregnant women. Pregnant women undergo numerous tests to identify possible fetal development problems. Some of the tests performed are blood tests to determine whether the woman has a greater predisposition to having a baby with spina bifida or fetal Down syndrome. (Blatt 1997) These tests are safer than invasive tests and many people hope that one day all genetic screening done will be done on the mother's blood, this technique is called fetal cell selection. But today many of the tests that can be done on the fetus require invasive techniques, such as an amniocentesis needle and precutaneous cord blood sampling in which a needle is inserted into an umbilical vein in the uterus. These tests can actually analyze the genes of fetuses. And in some situations women choose to terminate the pregnancy because of the results. A test carried out on newborns has been in practice since the 1960s. Phenylketonuria is a disease that can cause delay if it is not diagnosed early enough in the child's development. The government has mandated testing of newborns for this metabolic imbalance which can be treated with a proper diet. (Blatt 1997) Many other diseases can be diagnosed at birth without any danger to the baby compared to the invasive procedure described above. But many of these diseases that can be diagnosed have no known treatment for them such as phenylketonuria. Many new diseases can be diagnosed from newborns through adulthood. Many tests have been developed and more are being developed every day thanks to the Human Genome Project. The enormous amount of data provided to scientists virtually guarantees that almost everyone will have some genetic disorder that could be identified.