Oh hell yes! The more I know the more I can mitigate the effects or keep an eye out for treatments that may develop in the meantime. Don't screw with your health. An informed patient is the best patient.
Yes - I agree - which is why I don't understand this bit from the article Princess linked to:
It may reveal incurable diseases long before they start causing illness. For GPs using the tests, this raises the difficult question of whether patients should be told, and if so, what counselling they should receive.
OK - on the counselling bit - but 'whether patients should be told'?? Of course they should. OK - so you find out you have an incurable disease, the article only mentions specifically forms of cancer and dementia so let's pick vCJD, that may not effect you for a long time to come - years say. The patient has the right to know that - it may well effect the way you decide to live the next ten years. You know? Fuck the pension fund, I'm going to buy me a fast car and develop a gambling habit. Or, I'm going to have kids at a younger age than I would have planned otherwise so I get to see them grow up.
The really important question - and the reason some folk may choose to steer clear of kits like this - is what the medical insurance companies are going to make of it all. "Oh, I'm sorry sir, we won't insure you unless you use this test kit twice a year and if anything shows up we'll hike your premiums through the roof or stop insuring you altogether! Please sign here..."
Scarey - but that is what will mostly likely come of it.
if it is incurable to i get the opportunity to become a doc holiday style badass on my way out? these are answers i need to know.
I like your way of thinking - remind me, if we are ever both terminally ill, to come party with you. :biggrin1: