• more about #genetictesting more comments →
    nex0s: I'm pregnant and pro-choice. If I were getting IVF and had six embryos to choose from, you bet your ass I would choose the healthiest of the six to im... more »
    Mafalda para Presidente: As much as I approve of genetic testing, this is one use for which I would prefer it not be used. First of all, the breast cancer gene doesn't GUARAN... more »
    Grim Reaper of the Forest: I'm sure throughout history any loss of a child has been devastating to a parent. However, I think with trends in society to have very few children a... more »
    AuntieBee: For the sake of being inflammatory, I will point out that we will ALL die. Sorry. We will do it in different ways, but you are not facing a choice as ... more »
    Artemis47: As a geneticist currently working to develop new treatment for lymphoma, the comments on this are making me all rant-y. Let's get some facts straight... more »
    tscheese: I just don't see this as being the same as selecting for, say, blonde hair or height. I don't think this necessarily has to be a slippery slope, eithe... more »
    whatsername: From another point of view, I don't have great genetic/health odds. My maternal gran died relatively young, that side of the family is riddled with he... more »
    JazzednJersey: Life begins at implantation of the embryo, so I suppose you are not ending a life if you choose to "eliminate" the embryos that carry life threatening... more »
    Bunsen Honeydew: Something smells like potential eugenics. more »
    AuntieBee: "The message we are sending is: 'Better off dead than carrying (a gene linked to) breast cancer,'" she said. I know some survivors who would strongly ... more »
    NefariousNewt: And as to the whole debate on knowing/not knowing and aborting/not aborting -- that's according to a woman's personal ethos. Either you want to know, ... more »
    activearchivist is lovely, in a moist, fluffy sort of way: I'm torn. It seems unethical, wrong, and a step towards eugenics, but if I could screen to prevent someone from getting a horribly debilitating disea... more »
    BlondeGrlz: But we've also heard of women who have themselves tested for the gene and then get preventative - but totally unnecessary at the time - mastectomies. ... more »
    haaaaades: But everyone HAS the BRCA-1 gene, men and women! The protein it codes for is actually a tumor repressor. BRCA-1 only becomes a problem once it becomes... more »
    sarah.of.a.lesser.god (aka Mrs. BrutallyHonestHobbit): My dad once drunkenly told me how he and my mom considered aborting me. And this actually did not faze me in the slightest, seeing as I am actually he... more »
  • #genetictesting

    First "Breast Cancer Free" Baby Is Born

    The first child known to be screened as an embryo for the BRCA-1 gene, which often causes breast and ovarian cancer, was born in Britain this week, raising new ethical questions about genetic screening. More »
  • #genetictesting

  • #genetictesting