By Lea Bdeir
Genetics is a field of science that has continued to grow and develop with the recent technologies. This field has began to influence medical care as doctors and specialists begin to find a link between genetic deformities and mutations in the body. Consequently, molecular genetic testing technology has grown to become a common method of study and is commercially being used in medical and specifically pediatric and obstetric fields. As technology continues to evolve, new treatments are being found based on one's genome.
Genetic diseases affect 5 to 10% of children around the world.
The technologies for such diseases were introduced in the 70s when the fetal sex was determined before the actual birth of the child. This method is still used however has been improved from being invasive to becoming affordable, less technically demanding and less invasive- it is done now by an ultrasound or a simple blood test.
The demand for knowing the see of the baby didn’t stop there, parents now wanted to control the sex they had. Sex selection is the process of determining the genetic sex, male or female, of each embryo created through in vitro fertilization (IVF). using preimplantation genetic testing (PGT), the sex can be chosen; this requres determining the sex of the fertilized embryos in the lab through genetic analysis to determine the chromosomal makeup and then implanting cells in a women during the procedure. Technologies have been used to read the chromosomes inherited (either X or Y) to discover if its a boy of a girl (XX- female and XY- male).
This method has been shown to be effective and shows little to no complications. From discoveries like this, it has become evident that technology is essential to our life and can aid in making it easier and more efficient
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