Future Now
The IFTF Blog
When the real world starts to catch up with science fiction
Unlike some of my colleagues at the 'tute, I am not a big science fiction fan, which may explain why I was unfamiliar with the movie, Gattaca. It was brought to my attention during a discussion of probabilistic medicine, which is an idea based on knowing the probability of risk one bears for developing certain diseases.
Check out this clip:
We don't live in this world . . . yet. But we are getting a lot closer to it, thanks to the advent of personalized genetic testing services like 23andMe and Navigenics. We can now start thinking about our future health in terms of probabilities. The big question for me is, what will we do with the information we get? If my genetic profile indicates that I am at a higher risk for heart disease, I could make changes in my life to mitigate the risk (quit smoking, lose weight, exercise more, etc.). But what if I have a higher probability of getting multiple sclerosis, which you can't do much to prevent and for which there is no cure?
It won't surprise me that the day will come when it will be commonplace to run genetic profile tests on our children, even as newborns. I just hope that we are equipped to handle the tough questions that will come along with what we learn about them.