Whole Genome Scans Could Reveal Too Much

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IRA FLATOW, HOST:

This is SCIENCE FRIDAY; I'm Ira Flatow. If you're thinking about getting married or having children or just contemplating your health care options, you or your doctor may decide to have your DNA analyzed, looking for genes that may indicate possible trouble ahead. Maybe there's a telltale mutation hiding there or a recognizable pattern of genes.

It is possible now to order up a scan of your genome and see where trouble may lie or may not. Problem is, you might wind up finding more than you bargained for. Your doctor maybe looking, for example, for clues about colon cancer and find an increased risk for breast cancer instead, or Alzheimer's or heart disease.

And at that point is your doctor obligated to tell you about those risks? What if you didn't ask for it, you don't want to know? Is the doc obligated to tell you anyhow? And do you know enough about genome scanning to even know what you want to know? It's not just a patient who might worry about the results. If it's a faulty gene, there's a chance the patient's family members might share the same dangerous mutation. Do you tell them? What is the ethics of that?

The conundrum gets even more complicated. You don't even have to be born yet to get a genetic scan. We're already doing it for fetuses and human embryos produced by in-vitro fertilization. What are parents to make of these test results? Will the results influence their desire to have the baby? Could that knowledge be abused? And where do you go to get genetic counseling anyhow? Are there such genetic specialists?

The ethics of genetic testing and some advice on how to handle it, that's what we're going to be talking about for the rest of the hour. Give us a call. Our number is 1-800-989-8255, 1-800-989-TALK. You can also tweet us, @scifri, S-C-I-F-R-I, or go to our website at sciencefriday.com and join the discussion going on there.

Let me introduce my guests. Hank Greely is law professor at Stanford University in California. He's also director of the Center for Law and Biosciences there. Welcome back to SCIENCE FRIDAY, Dr. Greely.

HANK GREELY: Thanks, Ira, nice to be on the show.

FLATOW: You're welcome. Susan Wolf is a professor of law and medicine at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Welcome to the show.

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Whole Genome Scans Could Reveal Too Much