Genetic Disorders

Question 1

What type of Allele is cystic fibrosis caused by?

Answer 1

Recessive

Question 2

What is cystic fibrosis?

Answer 2

A genetic disorder of the cell membranes which results in the body producing a lot of thick mucus in the air passages and in the pancreas

Question 3

How many people carry the allele for cystic fibrosis?

Answer 3

1/25

Question 4

Why did people with only one copy of the allele not have the disorder?

Answer 4

Because it’s recessive so for a child to have the disorder both parents must be sufferers or carriers

Question 5

What is polydactyl?

Answer 5

A genetic disorder where a baby’s born with extra fingers and toes but isn’t life threatening

Question 6

What type of allele is polydactyl caused by?

Answer 6

Dominant so can be inherited if just one parent has the defective allele (the parent will be a sufferer)

Question 7

What happens in IVF and before implantation?

Answer 7

In IVF embryos are fertilised in a laboratory and then implanted into the mothers womb, more than one egg is fertilised so there’s a better chance of success
Before being implanted it’s possible to remove a cell from each embryo is analyse its genes

Question 8

What could be detected by doing this?

Answer 8

Many genetic disorders such as cystic fibrosis

Question 9

What are the arguments against embryonic screening?

Answer 9

Rejected embryos are destroyed and these could have been humans

Screening is expensive

It implies that people with genetic problems are ‘undesirable’ which would lead to prejudice

Question 10

What are the arguments for embryonic screening?

Answer 10

It will help stop people suffering

During IVF most embryos are destroyed anyway so this just allows the healthiest ones to be selected

Treating disorders costs the government a huge amount of money