Genetic Testing
Genetic testing for this second sort of “genetic” disease can benefit individuals if it motivates those who test positive to take potentially health-preserving actions. For example, women who learn they carry the BRCA-1 gene, and thus have an increased risk of breast cancer, might choose to adopt a low-fat diet or have their breasts removed prophylactically.
On the other hand, genetic problems can rarely be surgically corrected. Moreover, genetic tests can’t tell how soon or how severely an individual with a particular gene will contract a given disease. Increasingly, too, tests are iden- tifying genetic anomalies whose effects, if any, are unknown. As a result, individuals often must make life plans with little knowledge of what their futures (or their fetuses’ futures) will be like.
At the same time, individuals identified through genetic testing as having or being at high risk for illness run considerable high risk of discrimination. Although federal law prohibits discrimination in employment or health insurance based on genetic test results, it does not forbid discrimination in life insurance, long-term care insurance, education, or other sectors. And, of course, many will face discrimination even when it is illegal.
