Getting genetic testing just got a lot cheaper. The genomics company 23andMe recently announced a reduction in the price of their home test kit. The new price is $399. There are many who say this is a huge step forward in the ability to manage your health, as an entire industry is evolving around the field of personalized, at-home genetic testing. The pros and cons of genetic testing are still being debated by the experts, but here’s one man’s opinion.
Pros And Cons Of Genetic Testing
It is a well-established fact that there is a link between your family history and the likelihood of developing some diseases. For instance, alcoholism tends to run in families. If a member of your family developed colorectal cancer, you are at higher risk of developing the disease, and diabetes tends to run in families as well. Companies like 23andMe are testing DNA for variations that relate to known traits. Conditions such as obesity, prostate cancer, age related macular degeneration, stomach cancer and back pain are all among the 80+ ailments that have at least some research to suggest a genetic bias.
The company has also partnered with Ancestry.com to foster the budding field of genetic genealogy, which is the use of genetic testing to trace your lineage. You can even compare your genetic code against your friends. All of this information can be discerned from a small drop of saliva. By making this test more affordable, our ability to make judgments about our health risks has taken an unprecedented leap forward, but at what cost to society?
Scientists are developing an ever-greater understanding on how our DNA influences our lives. I suspect we’re learning that influence is much stronger than any of us would like to believe. If the information is used wisely, it may provide us with the tools to watch for those conditions to which we might be predisposed. If used in this way, they offer the possibility of reducing health care costs and improving quality of life through prevention.
Of course, there is a dark side. The potential for abuse of information gained from these tests is tremendous. Is it too far-fetched to worry about discrimination based on your DNA? How much value would an insurance company place on being able to target an individual’s health risk based on their genetics? While not as scary, how about the possibility of treating an individual for diseases before they emerge? That’s the ultimate in preventative medicine, and might be of value in some cases, but it may just be a huge waste of money and resources. This doesn’t even try to account for the stress one would you live under told they had a 90% chance of developing Alzheimer’s by the age of 65.
I believe these tests offer a tremendous potential to personalize our health care, relative to what we receive today. But the possibility of abuse certainly exists, and it is something to be guarded against. The reality is that since the genetic genie is out of the bottle, there’s no putting it back. Society will have to deal with the ethical challenges questions presented by the widespread availability of such tests. Until that’s done to my satisfaction, I’ll pass.
