DeCODE Genetics (DCG) has published a study that states Icelandic fathers who are in the 40's pass down more genetic mutations than their 20 year-old counter-parts. According the DCG, 97% of genetic mutations are derived from older fathers.
Because males produce sperm throughout their lives, and the genetic make-up of that sperm is created from mutations based on previously produced sperm. This study supposes that increase in autism could be connected to these genetic mutations.
This has led to an increase in genetic defects, suggests lead researcher Dr. Kari Stefansson. She asserts:Society has been very focused on the age of the mother. But apart from [Down's Syndrome] it seems that disorders such as schizophrenia and autism are influenced by the age of the father and not the mother.Studies into DNA with regard to reproduction and children harken back to proponents of eugenics that discouraged the procreation of those deemed "unfit" by the upper Elite of society.
The President's Council on Bioethics, who supports the screening of newborn blood in America, has stated that:Advocates of a broadened notion of 'benefit' often extol the utility of newborn screening for helping parents make future reproductive decisions…But this notion of 'benefit to the family' is not unproblematic…Suppose that expanded screening of an infant reveals not a fatal and incurable disease but instead a host of genetic variants, each of which merely confers elevated risk for some condition or other. Who is to say at what point an uncovered defect becomes serious enough to warrant preventing the birth of other children who might carry it? At what point have we crossed the line from legitimate family planning to capricious and morally dubious eugenics?The US government, in conjunction with hospital participation, has been warehousing newborn DNA with the intention to conduct full genome scans on every American citizen.
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Original Page: http://www.activistpost.com/2012/08/eugenicists-use-dna-and-genetic.html
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