Slashdot Mirror
Life with a Lethal Gene
charles robert darwin writes "The New York Times is running a story on young people who are choosing to get genetic tests for conditions like Huntington's Disease that develop relatively late in life. Apparently, while a genetic test for HD has been around for a while, very few people who have a parent with the disease choose to take the test. This story focuses on a young woman who did and tested positive. The piece follows her as she deals with the consequences. '...as a raft of new DNA tests are revealing predispositions to all kinds of conditions, including breast cancer, depression and dementia, little is known about what it is like to live with such knowledge.' With the HapMap and the $1,000 genome, this is something we are all going to face in one way or another very soon, and we really need to start thinking about it."
Would one be obliged to inform insurance companies of this "pre-existing" condition. If so, it seems one would probably be better off not knowing.
Don't worry, the free market will sort it all out! I mean the free market is the reason America has the best system of health care in the world (and so cheaply). I mean, if one company refuses to insure you, you'll just be able to... oh wait.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
But if enjoying life is doing everything that is bad for you, why not do all that stuff anyways? If you avoid it, by defintion, you haven't really lived.
Is it? One approach to this seems to involve activities that the person cannot recall afterwards and romantic entanglements that they wish they could forget.My personal test for HD is as follows
is it 16:9?
is it 720p or better?
If history repeats itself, why can't we study the future?
Just post your DNA AC.