I would be lying if I said that I have given serious thought to having DNA testing done on my DNA. Sure, I have seen the commercials for programs like 23 and me and have thought "oh that's pretty cool". If I were to do a DNA sequencing test I don;t think I would want to know if I had a genetic disposition for a gene that could cause premature death. I would mainly want to know where I come from, or if I am predisposed for type 2 diabetes. I would want to know the little things but I wouldn't want to live my life in fear after finding out I might die early. According to 23 and me, and Genos the only thing needed is your saliva. According to 23 & me, their tests can tell you results down to 0.1% which seems incredibly accurate. I believe that these companies should have extremely strict privacy policies, and request access to a customer's DNA before doing tests on them. They should definitely have no dealings with health insurance policies, because if someone has the disposition for a possible fatal gene the companies could increase rates. This would be unfair to the purchaser of the gene sequencing kit. I could see a gene sample being required in the future of medicine. The websites say they can detect how an individual will react to certain drugs based on their DNA. If this is true, it could be very useful to doctors.
23andMe. (n.d.). The Science Behind 23andMe. Retrieved from https://www.23andme.com/genetic-science/
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Hi Nate,
I too haven't really given genetic testing a real thought and after doing this forum I don't think it has increased my interest in the programs. I also agree with the fact that I would not want to know about any serious diseases that may end in premature death. I believe that sometimes ignorance is bliss and that I would just end up stressing about it for the rest of my life. While these companies have strict policies on privacy I still do not know how I could trust them. What is stopping someone from breaking in and stealing your genetic information? I also really like your reasoning for not sharing it with health insurance companies for fear of them raising premiums based on a chance of something happening to you because of your genetic information from these services.
I too haven't really given genetic testing a real thought and after doing this forum I don't think it has increased my interest in the programs. I also agree with the fact that I would not want to know about any serious diseases that may end in premature death. I believe that sometimes ignorance is bliss and that I would just end up stressing about it for the rest of my life. While these companies have strict policies on privacy I still do not know how I could trust them. What is stopping someone from breaking in and stealing your genetic information? I also really like your reasoning for not sharing it with health insurance companies for fear of them raising premiums based on a chance of something happening to you because of your genetic information from these services.
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Hi Nate!
I also have thought that DNA testing is pretty cool but have not considered doing it on myself. I, like you, would not want to know if my genes coded for premature death or life-threatening diseases. I never thought about insurance companies increasing rates on those with fatal genes, but it is a concern. I think that there are areas of concern in DNA testing as well as areas that can lead to positive outcomes! I also read about how individuals can react to different drugs and some may be more beneficial to one individual over another. I think the privacy concern is a major concern with these tests and having a database with all of their customers’ DNA results is frightening. I think that there are both positive and negative aspects to this technology and one individual may see the positives as outweighing the negatives and vice versa. I believe that this is a tricky situation and hopefully improvements will be made in the future regarding privacy.
I also have thought that DNA testing is pretty cool but have not considered doing it on myself. I, like you, would not want to know if my genes coded for premature death or life-threatening diseases. I never thought about insurance companies increasing rates on those with fatal genes, but it is a concern. I think that there are areas of concern in DNA testing as well as areas that can lead to positive outcomes! I also read about how individuals can react to different drugs and some may be more beneficial to one individual over another. I think the privacy concern is a major concern with these tests and having a database with all of their customers’ DNA results is frightening. I think that there are both positive and negative aspects to this technology and one individual may see the positives as outweighing the negatives and vice versa. I believe that this is a tricky situation and hopefully improvements will be made in the future regarding privacy.
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Hey Nate!
I have always kind of wanted to try genetic testing but I never really knew what it would tell me or how accurate it is. I agree with you on not knowing if I have a genetic disease that way, I could live my life the way I wanted to live without having to worry about anything. Also, I think it is crazy how accurate these tests are when they deal with something so small to us. I do like your argument of not showing the health insurance companies so they cannot raise your rates for insurance. I also agreed with you on the companies but also, I think that they should call the person instead of like an email to get a for sure answer to make sure they understand what is going to happen with their DNA.
I have always kind of wanted to try genetic testing but I never really knew what it would tell me or how accurate it is. I agree with you on not knowing if I have a genetic disease that way, I could live my life the way I wanted to live without having to worry about anything. Also, I think it is crazy how accurate these tests are when they deal with something so small to us. I do like your argument of not showing the health insurance companies so they cannot raise your rates for insurance. I also agreed with you on the companies but also, I think that they should call the person instead of like an email to get a for sure answer to make sure they understand what is going to happen with their DNA.
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