Jump to full article: The Washington Post, 2008-05-11
Author: H. Gilbert Welch and Wylie Burke
Intro: The company 23andMe promises to "unlock the secrets of your own DNA." Navigenics wants you to be tested to "do everything you can to stay healthy." And deCODEme hopes that genetic testing will "prompt people to do the right thing."
It all sounds so good. If you have a couple of thousand dollars to part with (along with some saliva), why not have one of these companies scan your genome?
The primary caution about genetic testing has usually been that you will learn that you are destined to develop some dreadful disease (such as Huntington's disease, a degenerative neurological disorder) for which there is no known therapy. A positive test only allows you to start worrying about your demise earlier. Do you really want to know? . . .
(These uncertainties, combined with the absence of increased lung-cancer risk, may tempt you to keep smoking.)
What's the right thing to do? With the exception of quitting smoking, the truth is: No one knows.
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