Reflection: During my research process I fell into a mental collapse and did not know where

to start in my project. I could not figure what to write about at all. So i remembered back to a
response I had in class and realized exactly what to do my inquiry project on. Genetic disorders.
I realized would be good for me. Whenever I look at people with mental disorders I feel angry at
the parent first and foremost. I realized that my anger was ill placed. Its not the parents fault,
but instead the ignorance. SO it took a while to get into the groove of things, but once I began
writing I quickly got into motion. sSadly however i did not complete the whole project. I also
could not figure out a title for my paper.

Dwelling on the past can be a common thing that everyone does. The truth is, do we ever

learn from the past? As a species has there ever been a time that we stopped for a moment and

looked at the tracks we left behind in the sand. The deep scars we made before we found a clean

and untouched future? The answer to that is, as a whole, human beings look at the past, but we

are conditioned to ignore it. We put fealties in our minds and say, that would never happen to

us! That just occured because that person is unlucky thats all. Thats where we are wrong. A

quick look into anyones genetic past can show a spider web of cause and effect. The cycle of

natural selection that is a commonplace part of our environment and the world we live in. My

everyday thoughts got me to thinking, could we really be slowly killing ourselves by trying to

look for ways to lengthen life? The answer is simple yet one that many people dare to even

dwell upon. In our quest for longevity we allowed ourselves to weaken by allowing unwanted

genotypes, which natural selection would have happily, and maybe even eagerly, wipe out. Can

common medicine allow for there to be more genetic defects? The answer is yes. That brought

me to the real question. If people knew their genetic histories, would they actively reproduce

even if risk factors are involved?

My question brought me to search on google for the answer. A quick input of my inquiry,

and what popped up was many an article about my exact same question. Before i began I knew a

good amount about this topic. Not on the choice of the individual, but the role natural selection
has in the culling of genetic disorders. In school we were always taught the basics of natural

selection, the passing on genes from parent to offspring, and even the advanced knowledge of

Methyl inhibitors. Now, school is an accredited source. What is more accredited however is the

implementation of research that you take on yourself. In an article on NBCnews.com written by

Melissa Schorr, an author and widely published freelance writer, an individual named Patrick

Tracey had to experience the effects of schizophrenia which had developed in his grandmother

and two older sisters. In his experiences at the age of his early twenties he decided against having

children in fear of himself developing schizophrenia, or passing the burden on to offspring. The

possibility of developing schizophrenia in a normal adult is around 1 percent. If there is a family

member the percentage boosts up to 10. At the age of 51 he still decides against having children.

This got me thinking. If Patrick Tracey could make the decision to not have kids knowing

the possibilities, what could other people who learn about their genetic history also decide. This

brought me along in my research to look into what percentage of people in the world who know

their genetic history decide to not have offspring. Going into this research I feel the statistics may

be very low, somewhere in the one to ten percent range.

Reflection: After receiving such positive feedback, I realized that my essay was really good
despite my previous assumptions about it. I did not finish the essay in my first draft and decided
against completing it after our first peer edits. I felt that it would display my growth from before
even better. After completing my final draft I looked back at the questions that had to be
implemented into our essays and seen how well I infused it into my essay. My intentions were to
have the questions in my essay be seen, but not at first glance. I feel I accomplished this and
could not find all of my questions instantly. They are in there, and it gives the essay a better flow
instead of choppiness from breaking of paragraphs to answer one question at a time. All in all I
believe that my essay is well written because I understand my limits, and I feel I surpassed them
in this and I now see as the time progresses in UWRT 1104, that my skills as a writer have
greatly improved.

WID 3/3/17
What i feel is strong in my inquiry proposal is that it is a topic that is easy to understand, and
there is already previous knowledge about the subject learned throughout high school. What im
not sure about is if people will understand where my direction is with the essay. How can it
relate to college? Would be a question i feel is explained, but someone will still ask.

Genetic ownership and taking responsibility

Dwelling on the past can be a common thing that everyone does. The truth is, do we ever

learn from the past? As a species has there ever been a time that we stopped for a moment and

looked at the tracks we left behind in the sand. The deep scars we made before we found a clean

and untouched future? The answer to that is, as a whole, human beings look at the past, but we

are conditioned to ignore it. We put fealties in our minds and say, that would never happen to

us! That just occured because that person is unlucky thats all. Thats where we are wrong. A

quick look into anyones genetic past can show a spider web of cause and effect. The cycle of

natural selection that is a commonplace part of our environment and the world we live in. My

everyday thoughts got me to thinking, could we really be slowly killing ourselves by trying to

look for ways to lengthen life? The answer is simple yet one that many people dare to even

dwell upon. In our quest for longevity we allowed ourselves to weaken by allowing unwanted

genotypes, which natural selection would have happily, and maybe even eagerly, wipe out. Can

common medicine allow for there to be more genetic defects? The answer is yes. That brought

me to the real question. If people knew their genetic histories, would they actively reproduce

even if risk factors are involved?

 My question brought me to search on google for the answer. A quick input of my inquiry,

and what popped up was many an article about my exact same question. Before i began I knew a

good amount about this topic. Not on the choice of the individual, but the role natural selection

has in the culling of genetic disorders. In school we were always taught the basics of natural

selection, the passing on genes from parent to offspring, and even the advanced knowledge of

Methyl inhibitors. Now, school is an accredited source. What is more accredited however is the

implementation of research that you take on yourself. In an article on NBCnews.com written by

Melissa Schorr, an author and widely published freelance writer, an individual named Patrick

Tracey had to experience the effects of schizophrenia which had developed in his grandmother

and two older sisters. In his experiences at the age of his early twenties he decided against having

children in fear of himself developing schizophrenia, or passing the burden on to offspring. The

possibility of developing schizophrenia in a normal adult is around 1 percent. If there is a family

member the percentage boosts up to 10. At the age of 51 he still decides against having children.

This got me thinking. If Patrick Tracey could make the decision to not have kids knowing

the possibilities, what could other people who learn about their genetic history also decide. This

brought me along in my research to look into what percentage of people in the world who know

their genetic history decide to not have offspring. Going into this research I feel the statistics may

be very low, somewhere in the one to ten percent range.

While researching this new question, brought on by more research into my topic, I found

that my inquiry could potentially be relevant to the whole of UNCC. Many people live daily

lives on campus and do not know their genetics. A majority of students on campus are above

eighteen years old, and go through sexual experimentation and even begin to consider having

children. Why allow these students to go around and have children without knowing the potential
risks they are bringing on for their child. This will be beneficial for the select students

considering children, and the ones who dont, to be able to not go into reproducing alone and

unknowledgeable about their genetics. Pregnancy is already expensive and dangerous to the

wallet. If a child is born with genetic defects, that amount of money invested into the child will

potentially skyrocket depending on the dangerousness of the childs genetic disorder. The fact is,

college is not cheap. If a student on UNCC can know their genetic history and refrain from

having children, I feel they will save a lot of money, which I know for a fact many of them do

not have.

Eventually, I could not find an exact percentage on how many people decide to not have

offspring after they learn about their genetic disorders. However, researching this new question

led me to the website www.npr.org, and the article More People Seek Genetic Testing, But There

Aren't Enough Counselors (2016) written by Todd Bookman. In this article he states that The

sheer number of genetic tests has exploded in the past decade or so. There are now thousands of

different testable genetic disorders. In fact, demand for genetic tests has been strong since 2013.

This means that over the past years there has been a rise in what genetic disorders can be

prevented. This is great for the people as a whole because they can now prevent even more

harmful genetic disorders from harming potential offspring. According to the article there is only

around 4,000 genetic counselors in this country alone. That is a one to 80,000 ratio. This means

that for every genetic counselor there is 80,000 americans.

Through countless statements from people who decide against reproducing after learning

their genetic legacies, many doctors quotes and opinions, and cold hard statistics. I found that

this inquiry is highly researchable. Even if there was more research on this topic, and more

genetic counseling. I feel that there will never be a majority of people in this world against
having children after knowing their genetic history. It is very difficult to go against your

instincts. The most direct and controlling instinct of the human body is to reproduce. If we

decide against it, are we truly organisms, or is the ability to conquer our instincts what makes us

human?