Capitalists, Genetic Tests and Your DNA

For Testing ---If wrote:

In theory I'm for genetic testing, except how do you prevent insurance companies from using this information to refuse insurance to "illnesses wating to happen" people? Until this question is resolved I would NEVER submit to genetic testing.

Cash wrote:

I'm interested in the personalized genetics tests, mostly because I got a business plan from a group wanting to start a company doing it. Yeah, they want to compete with a company founded by the wife of a Google guy. It had better be some great gimmick to overcome that.

too droll to troll wrote:

For me genetic testing is a dilemma. Both of my brothers are deceased. My mother has Alzeheimer's (or you could call it dementia...the only way to differentiate is via a post mortem autopsy). Three of her sisters went bonkers too. My father is still alive, and there is no history of dementia on his side.
So does one, pay for gene testing to see if you are predisposed or just live life as it happens?
Bet on rouge or on noir? I haven't a clue.

Once-ler wrote:

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I think the real question, for you, is: if you submit to gene testing, are the results going to change the way you live your life?
Even if you don't have any of those genes, you could still get hit by a truck.

too droll to troll wrote:

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Yes!

Once-ler wrote:

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Yes you would change your life, or yes, you agree?
If the former, how? How would you live differently?
I'm curious because, when I had my kids the docs wanted to do some alpha test or something (it's been awhile) to test for birth defects. He said if the results wouldn't change anything, then he didn't recommend the test. I didn't have it done.

too droll to troll wrote:

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After my parents pass, I am the last of the tribe, if you will. I have already drawn a will that gives everything to a specific charity with provisions that it be in the form of a trust.
If I were to find out that I was predisposed to some of the stuff that my mother presents with, I would live my life a little more fully and travel more.
Selfish? No! Since my brothers died ( a suicide for one and an heart attack, while mountain climbling, for the other), I have done as much, if not more so, for my parents, aged 94 and 89 respectively. Most folk would walk away from that scenario. None of all this has been easy, the loss of brothers, the declining health of one's parents.
So...I want to recoup some of my life, which I have given so unselfishly to others.

Once-ler wrote:

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I don't mean to be nosy...but why don't you live your life more fully now?

too droll to troll wrote:

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What do you mean by more fully? What is fullness or being satiated?
I really hate these sort of blogs because they end up being chest-thumping ego trips, and I abhor them.
Perhaps my happiness for now is sitting by the creek that courses through my farm and watching the herons, or muskrats or seeing the illusive woodcocks swirling through the air in their aerial mating dance. Or just meditating and letting the creek sounds clear my mind of clutter.
Perhaps for you, given that you have family, your joy comes from all that. Which is good and admirable.
For me ( and forget about the when are the martinis served?...which I haven't touched in many, many years), I get great pleasure in just enjoying nature, appreciating it, listening to the water flow, listening to the song birds, watching a fawn wobble along the path.
If I had children I'd delight in teaching them that which I studied quite well...Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese as well as the arts and music.
So, for the time being I teach others in those things as well as healing in Chinese modalities that defy Western knowledge.
And for all that, I ask no remuneration. Not in my spirit, not in my upbringing. But it does bring happiness and fulfillment.