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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."
Why? If I knew I was going to die in 5 years, I wouldn't bother saving for retirement, or trying to get ahead in my career, or buying a house, or not getting that really nice sports car that I talked myself out of. I also wouldn't have any children if I would be passing on the disease to them, or just leaving them without a parent, for that matter.
I would also probably be bummed out for a while. But on a long enough scale, we are all dead.
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.
I wonder if I use bold in my signature, people will notice my posts.
But how about the people you care about and who care about you? They probably would like you to live a long life, even though it may contradict your "live fast, die young" credo.
.sig has never felt more a propos)
(BTW my
"In our tactical decisions, we are operating contrary to our strategic interest."
I think you should also consider that the anticipation of doing something is often better than the actual doing of something. When you find out you have, say, 3 months to live, you can no longer anticipate to do a lot of things, and that makes your last 3 months of living rather miserable, if you ask me.
I guess what I'm really saying here is that my plans for the rest of my life are far more important to me than anything I could do in a final 3 months, regardless of any knowledge of my imminent demise.
Game! - Where the stick is mightier than the sword!
If you know that you are going to die within the next 5 years, it doesn't mean that you are going to die. When we learn about genes, it does not only give us the tools to know that we are going to die, it also gives the tools to prevent it from happening.
From the article:
But Ms. Moser bristled at the idea that she should have to remain ignorant about her genetic status to avoid discrimination. "I didn't do anything wrong," she said. "It's not like telling people I'm a drug addict."
Its ironic how she goes off through the whole article about how people look at her unfairly, like she has done something wrong. She goes off about how its not her faults and that it is a medical condition and people should understand that. Then she goes an accuses drug addicts of being the people who REALLY deserve the negative attention.
Drug addiction is a disease that is often caused by a set of genes. She is responible for the same discrimination that she feels is wrong. She doesn't realize that drug addicts are just as helpless to avoid onset of their symptoms as someone with Huntington's Disease.
It's bitter irony but it makes me angry to read it. Sometimes it seems like everyone thinks they are special and different and the rules don't apply to them.
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