Company to Sell Genetic Test

[Connie Sadler <SADLER_C@HOSP.STANFORD.EDU>]

      Interesting info...
      
         WASHINGTON (AP) - Even as evidence of discrimination based on 
      individuals' genetic makeups arises, a company announced yesterday that 
      it soon will sell the most comprehensive genetic test yet to predict 
      breast cancer.
         The $2,400 test is the latest entry in a race to bring to consumers 
      the rapid discoveries of disease-causing genes, even though patients 
      are struggling with the ramifications of learning they have such genes 
      when there's little they can do about it.
         A study published in today's edition of the journal Science found 
      that some 47 percent of people asked on health insurance applications 
      about genetic diseases were subsequently rejected for coverage.
         "This is what genetics is all about right now, this contrast between 
      rapid and exciting advances that carry enormous promise to alleviate 
      suffering... and yet the potential for this information to be used in 
      ways that injure people," warned Dr. Francis Collins, chief of the 
      federal Human Genome Project. Collins is a critic of selling gene tests 
      before doctors understand them better.
         The Human Genome Project, the government's massive effort to 
      identify the body's 80,000 to 100,000 genes, is trying to bridge that 
      gap, spending $8 million next year alone to study the ethical and 
      social implications of genetics research.
         Scientists already have found genes that, when mutated, can cause 
      everything from cancer to Alzheimer's disease. And some laboratories 
      are quietly offering tests to indicate whether now-healthy Americans 
      could get those killer illnesses decades in the future.