The Human Genome Project: GCSE Biology

My exam board says about the Human Genome project and needing to know the for points and the againsts. This will be a very short blog on it. As with all of my blogs it's mainly for my revision.

The "Human Genome Project" is a project to map all of the human genes. The idea is to collaborate all the scientists they could find to do this.

A simple way to remember the for and against points is to imagine this:

You are the manager of a company. You need to find a new security guard. This job requires, good eyesight, good hearing, strength and intelligence. You need to find the ideal candidate. This kind of job takes a lot of training to get used to the site they are guarding. Learn the door codes, learn the routines, learn the little hiding places for thieves. 

So this is where the human genome project becomes useful. Suddenly, judging from their past relatives, you can see one candidate is likely to get a heart disease later in life. Well, that's him out of the pile! 

Take it from the candidates perspective. No employer is going to employ someone likely to cost them money in sick pay. This is discrimination and is called "Gene-ism". It is a negative point of the Human Genome Project. 

However with this knowledge that you may get a heart disease later on in life means that doctors may be able to reduce the chances of this by informing you of diet changes and lifestyle changes that could save or at least prolong your life. This is "Preventing and Predicting Diseases" and is a positive point of the Human Genome Project.

Knowing what diseases someone may get can be very useful for "Accurate Diagnoses". This is a good point of the Human Genome Project. 

A sort of sci-fi point of the Human Genome Project is that in the future we could determine what a thief looks like from DNA samples. This would "Improve Forensic Science" and is a good point of the Human Genome Project. 

Some insects climb into peoples skin and lay eggs that hatch and then the baby insects slowly eat your skin. Maybe they're on you now... Paranoid? You should be. If you knew you were likely to get a skin disease or a heart condition you would spend your entire life worrying about it every time you looked in the mirror or had a pain in your chest. This is called "Increased Stress" and is a bad point of the Human Genome Project.

I have repeated the name "Human Genome Project" a million times. So DON'T FORGET IT. The red paragraphs are negative and the green positive points about it. What's it? The Human Genome Project. 

Hope it comes up in the exam and it's an easy 4 marks for you. Maybe 6, you could be lucky.

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