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Article: GENETIC CLAIRVOYANCE As we learn more about the genes that influence susceptibility to disease, millions of people could be offered the chance to see their medical future. But do we really want to know?
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- January 8, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1995 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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The call came when Monica Bradlee was at home in Tewksbury last
April, her family anxiously gathered around her, waiting for the
phone to ring. Two weeks earlier, Bradlee had given a blood sample
for DNA testing that would reveal whether her life would be likely to
end, like her father's, in a slow dance with death from Huntington's
disease. Whatever story the DNA told, it would ripple out to
encompass all those near her -- and some not yet born.
At 44, Bradlee had no symptoms of the disease that began to
attack her father at the same age, but she had lived in its shadow
for more than 20 years. That shadow extended to her children,
17-year-old Scott and 23-year-old Kelly, and to the ...