The Genetics of Disease

This exercise will give you a chance to contemplate the decisions that may be available to you as we learn more about the genetics of disease. The first Web site below presents a breast cancer scenario and then asks you to make some choices. It then provides you feedback about the choices you made.

http://www.dnafiles.org/archive/interact/brca/index.html

Complete the exercise on the first site and then answer the following questions.

1. Did you have any difficulty making any of the choices? Why or why not?

2. If you had a history of breast cancer in your family (men are not immune), would you want to have genetic testing done to determine your risk? Why or why not?

3. What would you advise your children to do if you had a family history of breast cancer?

4. Would the knowledge that you are carrying the gene(s) for a potentially fatal disorder influence your decision to have children? Why or why not?

Given the advances in the genetics of diseases, you may well be faced with making choices such as these in the near future. The test for one of the breast cancer genes is available now. For more information go to: http://www.worldhealth.net/p/261.html.