Genome India Project
Paper: III
For Prelims: Genome India project.
For Mains: Achievements of Indians in Science & Technology; Indigenization of Technology and Developing New Technology.
Context of News:
- In first week of February, the Department of Biotechnology under the Ministry of Science and Technologyhas given clearance to an ambitious gene-mapping project, estimated to be worth Rs 238 crore. The Genome India Project has been described by those involved as the “first scratching of the surface of the vast genetic diversity of India.
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR):
- The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research abbreviated as CSIR was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body that has emerged as the largest research and development organization in India.
- CSIR is supporting more than 1000 research schemes to various universities. CSIR is addressing national goals and Missions such as Swachh Bharat, Swastha Bharat, Samarth Bharat, Make in India, Innovate for India, Start-up India, Skill India etc.
About Genome India project:
- The Genome India Project, a collaboration of 20 institutions including the Indian Institute of Science and some IITs.This project will work to collect information about genome sequencing of people of India.
- The first stage of the project will look at samples of 10,000 persons from all over the country to form a grid that will enable the development of a reference genome.
- The Centre for Brain Research, which is an autonomous institute in the IISc, Bengaluru, will serve as the nodal point of the project.
- One of the most comprehensive genome mapping projects in the world is the Human Genome Project (HGP), which began in 1990 and reached completion in 2003.
Benefits of Genome Mapping Project:
- The Genome India project will aim to make predictive diagnostic markers available for some priority diseases such as cancer and other rare and genetic disorders. This move will help researchers get closer to developing effective therapies for treating diseases such as cancer.
- This is going to be transformational for our healthcare because these days disease management is all about data. For new advancements in medical science like predictive diagnosis and precision medicine, genomic information is key and the backbone.
- A genome is an organism’s complete set of DNA, including all its genes. It contains all the information needed to build and maintain that organism. By sequencing the genome, researchers can discover the functions of genes and identify which of them are critical for life.
Challenges Associated With Genome Mapping:
- Cost Factor:
- Anyone looking for a free mapping of their entire genome can sign up for “IndiGen”. Those who get their genes mapped will get a card and access to an app which will allow them and doctors to access information on whether they harbour gene variants that are reliably known to correlate with genomes with diseases. Although there are lot of benefits associated with these genome mapping project, but the coast factor would be enormous in collecting out this genetic samples and storing them at safer place.
- Ethical, Legal and Social Implications:
- Early planners of the HGP realized that human genomic mapping and sequencing would have profound implications for individuals, families and our society. Although this information can potentially and dramatically improve human health, it would raise a number of ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI) such as how this information would be interpreted and used, who would have access to it, and how can society prevent harm from improper use of genetic information.
- Genetic research and information should not be allowed in any discriminatory manner. Insurance companies should not be allowed to deny coverage to individual or even have access to that information. The rights of privacy need to be strengthened. Employers and employments agencies should not know an individuals’ genetic information. This information should be for the individual at risk of health concerns only and used in treatment or possible prevention
Way Forward:
- Some caution must be exercised in the field of human genetics, because the life sciences sometimes stray into unscientific terrain and heighten political bias. The mapping of brain regions to mental functions spun off the utterly unscientific and racist field of phrenology.
- In India, a nation riven by identity politics and obsessed with the myths of pristine origins and authenticity, scientific work in mapping genetic groups may become grist to the political mill of the unscientific notion of race. Projects in genetics generally extend over long periods of time, which should be used by makers of scientific policy to ensure that the data which emerges is not interpreted for political ends.
Seeking a more progressive abortion law
GS Paper II
Topic: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.
Mains: The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act 1971
What’s the News?
Recently, the Union Cabinet cleared a long-pending change to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 making it easier for women to safely and legally terminate an unwanted pregnancy.
Background:
- The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act 1971 legalized abortion in India up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.
- A national discourse on amendments needed to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971(MTP Act) in view of advancement of medical technologies dates back to 2008 when Haresh and Niketa Mehta petitioned the Bombay High Court to allow them to abort their 26-week-old foetus who had been diagnosed with a heart defect.
- But the court’s observation that only the legislature could address the demand for change in the legal limit. Niketa Mehta, incidentally, had a miscarriage soon after the verdict.
- Since then, many cases have gone up to the Supreme Court asking for permission to abort beyond the legally permissible limit, often involving victims of sexual crimes.
Supreme Court on abortion:
The Supreme Court has recognised women’s right to make reproductive choices and their decision to abort as a dimension of their personal liberty (in Mrs. X v. Union of India, 2017) and as falling within the realm of the fundamental right to privacy (in K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India, 2017). Yet, current abortion laws fail to allow the exercise of this right.
Issues in the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act 1971:
- Not Keeping pace with time: Due to advancements in science, foetal abnormalities can now be detected even after 20 weeks. However, the MTP Act presently allows abortion post 20 weeks only where it is necessary to save the life of the mother.
- This means that even if a substantial foetal abnormality is detected and the mother doesn’t want to bear life-long caregiving responsibilities and the mental agony associated with it, the law gives her no recourse unless there is a prospect of her death.
- Violates fundamental right: Abortion is the not the right of woman in India and can only be provided at the discretion of a medical practitioner.
- Ambiguity for unmarried woman: There is ambiguity around the provisions in the MTP Act for unmarried women to terminate pregnancy due to contraceptive failure since considerable stigma is attached to having a non-marital pregnancy or birth.
Need for the change:
- Rising Unsafe abortion:
- Unsafe abortions are the third-leading cause of maternal deaths in the country.
- Due to foetal anomalies that are detected late
- Cases of sexual assault and rape: Vulnerable women including survivors of rape, victims of incest and other vulnerable women (like differently-abled women, Minors) etc are most affected as doctors are not willing to provide abortions, irrespective of gestational stage.
- Other barriers: The implementation of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act, 2012 (POCSO Act), and the Pre-Conception Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994 (PCPNDT) as result of which doctors hesitate to provide abortion services to women and young girls.
Changes introduced in the bill:
- It increases the maximum permissible gestation age for abortion to 24 weeks, with the proviso that for pregnancies that are between 20-24 weeks opinions will be required from two doctors rather than one.
- The upper gestation limit will not apply in cases of substantial foetal abnormalities diagnosed by a Medical Board.
- Failure of contraception has been accepted as a legal reason to abort not just in married but also unmarried women.
Significance:
- The proposed increase in gestational age will ensure dignity, autonomy, confidentiality and justice for women who need to terminate pregnancy.
- Obstetricians argue that this has also spurred a cottage industry of places providing unsafe abortion services, even leading, in the worst of cases, to the death of the mother.
- The extension of limit would ease the process for these women, allowing the mainstream system itself to take care of them, delivering quality medical attention.
The availability of cheap and safe abortion services is one of the indicators of a robust health system.
Limitations in the Bill:
While the MTP Bill, 2020, is a step in the right direction, it still fails to address most of the problems with the MTP Act.
- It doesn’t allow abortion on request at any point after the pregnancy.
- It doesn’t take a step towards removing the prejudice against unmarried women by amending the relevant provision.
- It enhances the gestational limit for legal abortion from 20 to 24 weeks only for specific categories of women such as survivors of rape, victims of incest, and minors.
- This means that a woman who does not fall into these categories would not be able to seek an abortion beyond 20 weeks, even if she suffers from grave physical or mental injury due to the pregnancy.
Conclusion:
- Even as the government has struck a winner with its decision, it needs to ensure that all norms and standardised protocols in clinical practice to facilitate abortions are followed in health care institutions across the country.
- Since everything rests on the delivery, stopping short would undoubtedly make this progressive order a mere half measure.