论文题目:遗传学ASSIGNMENT加案例分析
ASSIGNMENT Case Study: Helen’s sister Suzanne decides to see the genetic counsellor too. She has been attending an infertility clinic and is currently receiving clomiphene therapy to help her conceive. After testing she is also found to have the same mutation. She immediately discontinues the therapy as clomiphene greatly increases the risk of multiple pregnancies and she can’t face the thought of terminating several babies or of selective foeticide. She feels angry that the risk of neurofibromatosis has never been discussed with her prior to her infertility treatment.
For example, neurofibromatosis patients will face certain issues that are specific to neurofibromatosis and are not inevitably experienced by other people with different genetic diseases. Having neurofibromatosis itself might cause you a specific direct problem with job options because of physical disfigurement. That would be a direct consequence of having neurofibromatosis. Completely independent of the specific direct problems you have from neurofibromatosis, you may also experience additional problems that may be experienced by people with a wide range of very different genetic diseases. These would be considered indirect issues. For example you might be considered unsuitable for a job because an employer does not want to employ anybody at all who has a genetic condition of any kind whatsoever (e.g. because they believe such people will take too much leave or will not perform well etc). These ‘indirect’ issues would not have anything to do with specific problems due directly to neurofibromatosis per se but would equally occur for genetic disorders of various kinds. • Disease Features Briefly describe the disease characteristics, including symptoms, onset age, prevalence, biochemical mechanisms (if known), treatment and any other factors you consider particularly relevant. • Testing What tests are available for neurofibromatosis? • Genetics Draw a pedigree for the family. Briefly discuss the inheritance pattern of neurofibromatosis. What are the risks of a person having the mutation if her cousin has the disease? Does it make any difference whether or not they are the same gender? What are the probabilities/risks that the children of this person will inherit neurofibromatosis? Discuss the difference between penetrance and expressivity using neurofibromatosis as an example. Is it possible to predict how severely affected a person with a neurofibromatosis mutation will be? What factors may influence this? • Counselling Discuss how genetic counselling can assist families with genetic disorders in general, the roles it has played in this case study and how further genetic counselling may be able to assist Suzanne and Helen in the future. What options are available for Helen and Suzanne if they decide to try to have children in the future? • Pharmacogenomics Is it reasonable for Suzanne to believe that she should have received more counseling about neurofibromatosis before commencing IVF therapy? It may help to consider whether the pharmacogenomics issue involving clomiphene therapy is a ‘direct’ issue or an ‘indirect’ issue and, related to this, whether it likely to arise often or be relatively rare. What are some of the main kinds of ‘direct’ pharmacogenomics issues that can occur for genetic disorders in general? Are there any other direct or indirect pharmacogenomics issues that you can think of that might need to be taken into account for neurofibromatosis sufferers and their families?#p#分页标题#e# • Ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI) What are some of the ethical dilemmas that might confront this family in the future? What are some of the social and legal issues the family might encounter and what are some of the ethical and legal issues genetic counsellors need to consider in such situations? Are there potential ethical or legal issues involved for any other health professionals that you can think of? Try to include examples of both direct and indirect issues. • Other issues Anything else you feel to be relevant to the issues raised by this case study. WORD LIMIT: 3000 words SUBMISSION: • Assignments should be submitted by 5.00pm Friday 8th August to the assignment submission box. An attached completed and SIGNED Coversheet form (available from the Course Document section of the PHAR 6123 Blackboard site) is mandatory for acceptance of the hardcopy version of assignments. • An electronic copy of the assignments must be submitted to Turnitin via the link • Remove the questions and references before submitting to Turnitin.
MARKING GUIDE: It is expected that students will use information from journal articles (original as well as reviews) and not just from text books, websites or other secondary sources. Marks will be broadly assigned according to the following guidelines: |