Chapter 6 Discussion

Some services offer direct-to-consumber tests (using pedigrees and genetic testing) which are used to help people understand their risk of developing medical conditions (such as breast cancer or Alzheimer disease). Do you think these analyses should be made available to the public? List some arguments for and against providing this service.

Initial Post

Respond to the questions above in a new thread in the discussion forum.

Respond to 2 other posts

Respond to two other student posts reflecting on their responses. Did you agree or disagree? Why? Was it something you had considered? Is there maybe something they should consider?
Post 1:
Direct-to-Consumer genetic tests have become more and more popular every year. These relatively cheap tests promise to not only tell your ancestry but also any genetic disease predispositions. While it may seem like the public should have access to these, people may want to restrict them.

            As we are all learning, genetics is way more complicated than just a Punnett square. These tests provide answers that people might not be able to interpret. You cannot replace the people that go through years of medical training with some google searches of your results. These results should be interpreted by a professional to give a proper plan of action and to educate what exactly it means. Uniformed decisions based on a test that might not even be accurate could have negative consequences.

            I believe that it is everyones right to know as much as they want about themselves. These tests do not pose any medical risk and therefore should be able to be performed by the public. People should have the right to make informed decisions without costing them thousands of dollars with medical genetic testing. These large-scale genetic tests can cause populations to change for the better by granting people information about their genes to make decisions regarding family planning.
Post 2:
Making genetic testing available to the public is a great idea. People would have an accurate diagnosis and could possible look for suitable treatment for the diagnosis. More data would be available for researchers to use to study such diseases as breast cancer or even Alzheimers diesease. I think when it comes to which date is available to the public, people should have a choice on if they want the information available to all or choose which specific information they want available. One disadvantage I had thought about at first was what if your insurance coverage denies you. I found a article that says that a law of the name Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act made it illegal for insurance providers to use information from direct-to-consumer genetic testing to make decisions about your insurance (https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/dtcgenetictesting/dtcinsurancerisk/)

Validility and condifentialty are things that will play a part with genetic testing. Consumers would have to inform the people what would all happen if they choose to get a genetic test done. The test also would need to be done by people who are experts in genetic testing. Auccracy is very important.