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June 26, 2008, 12:10 am
Flag as Inappropriate STP_champ  

Assuming you can pay the hefty sum these companies are charging, do you have a right to order tests on your own genes? Should the government step in and regulate it so only a doctor can order genetic testing?

What do you think?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/business/26gene.html?_r=1&ref=health&oref=slogin

The problem is that what I think is right and what is going to be done isn't the same thing at all. I think you should be able to get all the testing you want and need and should have the right to hide all the results from whomever and whatever company that you want.

That means that if you don't want your own doctor to know the results, and you only want a specialist of your own choosing to go over it with you, then he shouldn't get the results. If you want to hide the results from your health insurance company because once they know the results then you will be under their thumb as to your health benefits and charges, then they shouldn't get to see what is in your genes.

But we all know that no matter what is said now, at the beginning of the practice of testing, and finding out what MIGHT be in your future, that in a couple of years the health insurance industry will somehow be able to start to charge more to people who might get any disease because it is in their genes.

It's too bad that our lives are in the hands of people who couldn't care less about our well being. They just want to know how much you might cost them someday.

You are supposed to have the right to privacy, and we all know that money has more power than rights.

Of course you have a right to do that. They're your genes, and you can do whatever you want with them.

I think you have the right to test your own genes and share the results with whomever you choose.

I just read the article. I guess I think you have a right to have them tested, but I see where the government is coming from too. I'd want some consumer protection too, I'd hate to think of my dna being cataloged for testing, and who knows what goes on in those labs.

when you go for genetic testing make sure you take a contract with you and force your doctor to sign it. You'll have to have a lawyer make the contract up for you but basically it grants you the right to sue for damages anyone involved in the custody chain of your DNA sample if they release that information to anyone but you. Make it quite clear that the information is not to stay in any database but is to be delivered to you and then deleted.

I'm not sure many if any labs will go along with this but if necessary, walk away and blog about it....someone who wants the money will eventually offer the service on your terms. You as the customer have to realize you power.....you don't have to do business with anyone who does not go by your terms. Live your life this way and it will become clearer to you as you walk this path.