tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12625691.post7869094464013309062..comments2024-02-29T01:43:23.900-05:00Comments on Women's Bioethics Blog: "Cancer-free" baby born in UK: what's wrong with this picture?Linda MacDonald Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02378544626277000243noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12625691.post-16779766672291340172009-01-18T21:43:00.000-05:002009-01-18T21:43:00.000-05:00""Cancer-free" may be a misnomer in this case."Def...""Cancer-free" may be a misnomer in this case."<BR/>Definitely. This kind of BS usually appears in the headlines, inserted by editors, while the article makes clear the probabilistic nature of the results.<BR/><BR/>"And finally, isn't there a morally relevant difference between choosing to terminate a pregnancy because of a positive diagnostic result (eg, Tay-Sachs, Down syndrome) and choosing to do so based on a measure of susceptibility?"<BR/>All medical benefits are probabilistic. We give people painful chemotherapy for the chance that it will prolong their lives. We advise people to cut back on smoking or exercise more, even though any individual cigarette or hour of exercise only has a tiny probabilistic effect on the likelihood of disease. Similarly for the flu shot.<BR/><BR/>Anyway, eventually we will use this technology (combined with full genomic data for the parents) to select embryos based on the overall distribution of many alleles with individually small effects but collectively large ones.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12625691.post-49751403923166918582009-01-11T22:52:00.000-05:002009-01-11T22:52:00.000-05:00Not really on topic, but the best way to prevent T...Not really on topic, but the best way to prevent Tay-Sachs is for prospective parents to both be tested to see if they are carriers before they get try to have a baby or even better, young adults to who know they are at risk to carry Tay-Sachs to get tested before they get into a relationship. I got tested at 22 or so when my brother tested positive. I wasn't positive. No need to worry since it takes two carriers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com