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Genetic screening is the use of a test to identify people who have, are predisposed to, or are carriers of a genetic disease. It can be done at many times of life and used for many purposes:
Prenatal screening can be used to identify an embryo or fetus with a disease so that medical intervention can be applied or decisions can be made about whether or not to continue the pregnancy.
Newborn babies can be screened so that proper medical intervention can be initiated quickly for those babies who need it.
Asymptomatic people who have relatives with a genetic disease can be screened to determine whether they are carriers of the disease-
Genetic screening can be done at the level of either the phenotype or the genotype.
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Genetic screening can involve phenotype or genotype analysis.