Is it possible to test genetics before you have kids to rule out certain conditions, specifically for parents that have children that don’t function in any capacity or almost no capacity besides violence, the ones that either parents give up their lives or they go into a care facility?

Question

If so how, is it only for ivf?

In: Biology

Answer 1

You can only test for genes that we KNOW cause problems. So for example, I did IVF for my children, so we did genetic testing of myself and husband before we started (which, like I said, only looks for specific genes that are easily found), and then we spoke with a genetic counsellor about whether any of the genes could cause problems when put together. A next option for people doing IVF — if the couple have a KNOWN genetic disease, is preimplantation genetic testing (PGD). With PGD, the couple must have already created 5-day blastocysts for testing, and the embryologist does assisted hatching on the embryo in order to biopsy cells for genetic testing. If the embryos have the genetic disease/disorder then the couple will LIKELY choose to discard them rather than inflict a dangerous or deadly disease on a potential child.