Genetic Testing Concerns

I saw ads on Google for genetic tests as low as $300 and as high as $1,200. That is pretty incredible. But are they accurate and is it a good idea to find out which diseases your children are most likely to get? Some parents say the more information, the better. Some doctors say most of the common diseases have a number of contributing factors that include genes, lifestyle and the environment. So, many experts believe the tests are not worth the trouble. But for families who have a long history of dying young from a heart attack or amputations from diabetes, it might be worth it. I haven't had any of my kids tested and I don't plan to.
What do you think?

FROM ABC NEWS: Genetic Testing is directly available to the public and is gaining in popularity. But it seems more time is needed to find out if the tests do any good. So-called direct-to-consumer genetic testing has been hailed as one the medical break-throughs of the twenty-first century.

According to a study in the journal "Pediatrics," parents agree. A survey found that parents favor genetic testing for their children to determine if they are at greater risk for disease as adults. The tests included those for such common illnesses as: colon, skin, and lung cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes.

The authors say test results could motivate young and healthy people to modify their behavior before bad habits lead to diseases and become deep-seated. But they also caution that -- so far at least -- "the actual risks, benefits, and utility of genetic testing for common preventable health problems has not been established for adults or for children."

Here's more info on this from the FTC

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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Designer Babies

If you could, would you choose for your baby to have blond hair or brown? What about the baby's eye color? Blue or Green? That technology could soon be available, but is it ethical? That's the question many are raising after a couple eliminated the risk of hereditary colon cancer for their little girl.

This should be an interesting controversy to follow.

Here's the story that ran on ABC:

What if we could eradicate hereditary breast cancer by screening embryos? It 's controversial, but it's just been done for the first time in Britain and a handful of doctors are already doing it here in the U.S. The results are incredibly promising and are giving hope to families with a long history of the disease.

But some fear it could be the beginning of a brave new world where parents design their own children screening not just for deadly disease but for everything from beauty to intelligence.

In the movie "Gattaca", the fictional world of the future included selective genetics where undesirable genes were eliminated before birth. This brave new world on film was science fiction fantasy, but the science is fiction no more. Chloe Kingsbury is living proof.

Chloe's father, Chad, carries a gene for deadly genetic colon cancer that has killed two uncles, his mother and his grandfather. Because he carries the gene, he has an 85% chance of getting colon cancer. His offspring have a 50% chance of inheriting the gene from him.

So Chad and wife Colby used a new method of genetic testing called preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) which screens embryos for genetic disease. It allowed them to bring their daughter Chloe into the world without any fear that she'll get the disease. Chad said, "I've seen what this disease can do firsthand. I've held my mother's hand while she died. I look at my grandma every time I see her and there is an emptiness there. I mean, she's lost all three of her children. and I - I just, I couldn't do that."

And now one doctor in London used PGD to help a 27yr-old woman conceive Britain's first baby guaranteed to be free of hereditary breast cancer. Dr. Paul Serhal from University College London Hospital said, "All the lineage of the child will be free of the cancer and this to me is a very important message you want to put across."

It's been 30 years since the world's first test tube baby raised ethical questions over reproductive science and now with this medical milestone comes a new debate over genetic selection. Dr. Arthur Caplan, the Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, said, "Today we saw the door open. The rare ethical challenge is where is this going to take us in the future? How far will we go to letting people design their babies?"

The Kingsbury's though wouldn't have it any other way. Chad said, "You just want to make a happy life for your child. And I think that's all we're trying to do."

What do you think about genetic testing? Will it lead to designer babies?

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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