Genetic Testing

Arthur Caplan is director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania Type genetic testing on an Internet search engine and then hang on. You will be in for quite a ride. There is an endless parade of companies touting genetic tests for everything, including determining whether your kid has the potential to be a star athlete, finding out whether your ancestors were kings or ne'er-do-wells, finding a date, optimizing your diet, or knowing what diet to use if your intake is not optimal.

With the cloning of Dolly the sheep focusing attention on genetic research, Jonathan Tolins' drama Twilight of the Golds is of special pertinence and interest, even if NorthStar Productions doesn't offer a version that does the play justice. Although the program gives "now" as the time frame for the play, the Twilight of the Golds is, at the current level of genetic research, a futuristic what-if proposition. The thought-provoking question Tolins poses is: If it were possible to predict with a high probability of accuracy that an embryo would produce a homosexual adult, would the prospective parents be justified in terminating the pregnancy based on that knowledge?

Two to four of every 100 people unknowingly carry a combination of genes that renders them unusually vulnerable to Alzheimer's disease as early as their 60s. If you want to find out whether you're one of them, the Philadelphia company Smart Genetics is about to offer a test you can order over the Web. For $399, customers receive a kit and send back a saliva sample. Within three weeks they learn whether they carry one or two copies of an Alzheimer's-associated genetic variant known as APOE4.

Type genetic testing on an Internet search engine and then hang on. You will be in for quite a ride. There is an endless parade of companies touting genetic tests for everything, including determining whether your kid has the potential to be a star athlete, finding out whether your ancestors were kings or ne'er-do-wells, finding a date, optimizing your diet, or knowing what diet to use if your intake is not optimal. Apparently, there is more self-discovery to be had by spitting your saliva into a cup and sending it off to be genetically analyzed than in a whole month of Dr. Drew.

Across the country, women and their physicians are inquiring about something that was hard to imagine only a year ago - a genetic test for susceptibility to breast and ovarian cancer. "I get calls every day from oncologists who say, 'My patients are asking me about this testing, and I'm not up on this,' " said Lynn Godmilow, a genetic counselor at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. Experts estimate that so far 1,000 people have had the test - a blood analysis that checks for mutations in the susceptibility gene, BRCA1, isolated 15 months ago. BRCA1 mutations - passed on by a mother or father - are believed to cause about 5 percent of the 182,000 breast cancers and 11 percent of the 21,000 ovarian cancers diagnosed annually.

If parents want to know their child's skin color in order to avoid having a "white" baby, should doctors try to help them? In Japan the answer to this question is yes. Hiroshi Shimuzu, a dermatologist at Keio University in Tokyo, along with a group of other physicians at Nagoya City University Medical School, has developed a pregnancy test for albinism. Albinos lack one of the chemicals necessary for making the substance, melanin, that gives human skin its various colors. Advances in genetics let Shimuzu and his colleagues discover a test to see whether a fetus is an albino.

All Niki Perry wanted was pieces of her own brain, and she got angrier by the day as she tried to get them. She needed samples of her brain tumor this spring to enter clinical trials she hoped might save her life. What she got, she said, was delay and disappointment. Plus insight into what she sees as a new battleground: who controls what happens to tiny bits of tumor tissue saved after surgery. This tissue is growing more precious as scientists unlock its potential to target treatments to a specific person's cancer.

THE DECISION to have an abortion is usually the result of pregnancy unwanted by women in difficult circumstances: young, single, in school, in abusive relationships, victims of rape or incest. There are many reasons women feel they are not in a position to raise a child at a certain point in their lives and come to this difficult choice. As the science of genetic testing has advanced, another model has emerged in which abortion has become an option for planned and wanted pregnancies as well.

Last summer, when scientists announced they had found the gene for the most common form of dwarfism, Ruth Ricker began to worry. Ricker, who stands about three feet tall, heads the Little People of America, a Boston-based support group for very short people. "This is a different way of being, not a wrong way of being," says Ricker, 35. She says many people in her organization don't like the idea that there may soon be a prenatal test for dwarfism. "We are uncomfortable in realizing that in the near future, unaffected couples could screen for healthy dwarfs - people like me," she says.

Ernest and Regina Twigg, the Pennsylvania couple who say they brought the wrong child home the hospital 10 years ago, won't seek custody of a Florida girl they believe is their daughter, a lawyer said yesterday. But they still want genetic testing done to prove they are her real parents. The Twiggs of Langhorne, Bucks County, would settle for a chance to visit with the 10-year-old Sarasota girl, and an opportunity to incorporate her into an extended family to give them time with her as she grows up, said John Blakely, the Twiggs' Clearwater attorney.

All Niki Perry wanted was pieces of her own brain, and she got angrier by the day as she tried to get them. She needed samples of her brain tumor this spring to enter clinical trials she hoped might save her life. What she got, she said, was delay and disappointment. Plus insight into what she sees as a new battleground: who controls what happens to tiny bits of tumor tissue saved after surgery. This tissue is growing more precious as scientists unlock its potential to target treatments to a specific person's cancer.

Type genetic testing on an Internet search engine and then hang on. You will be in for quite a ride. There is an endless parade of companies touting genetic tests for everything, including determining whether your kid has the potential to be a star athlete, finding out whether your ancestors were kings or ne'er-do-wells, finding a date, optimizing your diet, or knowing what diet to use if your intake is not optimal. Apparently, there is more self-discovery to be had by spitting your saliva into a cup and sending it off to be genetically analyzed than in a whole month of Dr. Drew.

Arthur Caplan is director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania Type genetic testing on an Internet search engine and then hang on. You will be in for quite a ride. There is an endless parade of companies touting genetic tests for everything, including determining whether your kid has the potential to be a star athlete, finding out whether your ancestors were kings or ne'er-do-wells, finding a date, optimizing your diet, or knowing what diet to use if your intake is not optimal.

Genetic testing confirmed that the infant found along the Raritan River last month was the child allegedly abducted and thrown off a bridge by her father as he fled to his parents' Winslow Township home, authorities said Monday. Investigators initially believed the body found April 24 was Zara Malani-Lin Abdur based on the pink-and-gray onesie she was wearing, but DNA testing was needed for the confirmation. The 3-month-old had been abducted Feb. 16 in East Orange, N.J., from her maternal grandmother as the baby's mother, Venetta Benjamin, 23, was obtaining a protection-from-abuse order against Shamsiddin Abdur-Raheem, 21, of Galloway Township.

The science of DNA can correct injustices, but it can also verify heartache. John Robert Barnes of Michigan felt sure he was not the flesh and blood of the people who raised him. The older he got, the more Barnes realized that he had little in common with his "mother" and "father. " "Something wasn't right," Barnes said. "I wasn't sure if I was kidnapped or switched at birth or adopted. I just knew I didn't come from these people. " As he grew into middle age, Barnes no longer spoke to his father, who lives only a few miles away.

RE YOUR June 4 editorial about Dr. George Tiller: In 1996, I was pregnant with my first and only child. At nine weeks, I was told that tests indicated the fetus had died. My doctor said there was no heartbeat, and I was given the option of continuing the pregnancy until a miscarriage occurred, or undergoing a D&C. I chose the D&C. Genetic testing showed the fetus had trisomy 15 and wouldn't have survived. I was blessed that nature made the decision to terminate my pregnancy for me. Too often women don't learn of genetic abnormalities until after the first trimester.

Two to four of every 100 people unknowingly carry a combination of genes that renders them unusually vulnerable to Alzheimer's disease as early as their 60s. If you want to find out whether you're one of them, the Philadelphia company Smart Genetics is about to offer a test you can order over the Web. For $399, customers receive a kit and send back a saliva sample. Within three weeks they learn whether they carry one or two copies of an Alzheimer's-associated genetic variant known as APOE4.

Real estate educator Marcie Roggow often starts her classes by defining trends, and the one I sat in on at the recent regional Realtors' conference in Atlantic City was no exception. Roggow defines a trend as a "any consistent pattern or change in the general direction" of something. For example, staging homes is a trend; leisure suits (remember them?) were, thankfully, a fad. (I know. I owned two of them.) In his 2007 Trends Report , real estate educator Stefan Swanepoel writes that "some trends in the real estate industry evolve internally to meet a specific need, while others develop when new products or solutions are created to solve problems that may or may not exist.

THE DECISION to have an abortion is usually the result of pregnancy unwanted by women in difficult circumstances: young, single, in school, in abusive relationships, victims of rape or incest. There are many reasons women feel they are not in a position to raise a child at a certain point in their lives and come to this difficult choice. As the science of genetic testing has advanced, another model has emerged in which abortion has become an option for planned and wanted pregnancies as well.

I admit mammograms are no fun, but mine saved my life. I am thankful I endured those few moments of having my breast smashed into a pancake while I held my breath. Modern medical technology, thank you! I never felt a lump, and I eat right, exercise, and have always been extremely healthy. So when my diligent gynecologist, Jeff Levine, called to tell me that my mammogram had come back questionable, the news sounded like the tales I have heard of doctors' being overly cautious.