Genetic Testing: Promise and Peril
Ottawa, Ontario, May 5, 2003

What are the benefits of genetic testing?

There are currently high hopes - some would argue overblown ones - about the potential of genetic testing to identify diseases, and possibly lead to treatments and cures.

"With genetic testing, we now have a new window into ourselves," says Bob McDonald. The ability to identify a person's unique genetic makeup opens the door to the possibility of so-called designer pharmaceuticals and individualized medicine.

Dr. Alex MacKenzie notes that even genetic glimpses can be scientifically rewarding. A Canadian scientist recently identified the genes involved in only one percent of Alzheimer's patients.

"By that genetic epiphany, a whole understanding of why Alzheimer's happens in the other 99 percent of people has come shining forth. So, there are benefits that extend far beyond the individual with the rare genetic mutation to the more common forms," says Dr. MacKenzie.

For now, says Timothy Caulfield, we live in a time of great expectations about the beneficial power of genetic testing.

"There's been a lot of geno-hype around genetic testing," says Caulfield. "But in fact, I think the short-term benefits have probably been overstated in the media. There are actually very few genetic tests right now that are of general value, and one could argue that there are no effective therapies associated with a genetic test."

Indeed, even for existing highly predictive genetic tests, such as for Huntingdon's disease, individuals sometimes choose simply not to know.

"Genetic testing for an individual often effects the whole family, because of the nature of the disorder", says Pauline Tardif. "In the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Canada, we often see that even when genetic testing is available to identify predisposition to a certain neuromuscular disorder, families choose not to know."