1. Should test results be kept confidential from other familymembers who are directly affected (as in examples B & D)?
2. Should a client be given information that will lead to adecision that the counselor believes is unethical (as in examplesA&C)?
3. What would you do? (Note: The answers to the first twoquestions can/may be different from the third).
Thinking Like A Scientist
One of the most difficult parts of being a scientist is knowing howto use information so it does not harm others. Consider thesecases:
A. A pregnant woman and her husband both have achondroplasticdwarfism, a dominant condition that affects appearance (very shortstature, large head) but not intellect. They want genetic analysisof the fetus; they plan to abort if the child would be of normalheight.
B. A 40-year-old woman is tested and is told that she has the BRCA1gene. That means she has about an 80% chance of developing breastcancer and is at high risk for ovarian and colon cancer. She doesnot believe these results and wants no one to tell her mother, herfour sisters, or her three daughters, some of whom may be I theearly stages of cancer.
C. A 30-year-old mother of two daughters (no sons) is a carrier forhemophilia. She requests in vitro fertilization (IVF) andpre-implantation analysis so that only male zygotes without thehemophilia-carrying X chromosome will be implanted. Female zygotes,all healthy but half of them carriers, would be destroyed as wouldthe hemophiliac half of her male zygotes.
D. A couple has a child with cystic fibrosis. They want to know ifthey both carry the recessive gene, in which case they will have nomore children, or if the child’s illness was the result of aspontaneous genetic change, as my happen at conception. The testresults make it apparent to the counselor that the couple will nothave a child with cystic fibrosis, because the husband is not thechild’s biological father.
Answer the following questions in your Blog:
1. Should test results be kept confidential from other familymembers who are directly affected (as in examples B and D)?
2. Should a client be given information that will lead to adecision that the counselor believes is unethical (as in examples Aand C)?
3. What would you do? (Note: The answers to the first two questionscan/may be different from the third).
