Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing
Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) genetic testing is a type of genetic test that is accessible directly to the consumer without having to go through a health care professional. Usually, to obtain a genetic test, health care professionals such as doctors acquire the permission of the patient and order the desired test. DTC genetic tests, however, allow consumers to bypass this process and order one themselves. There are a variety of DTC tests, ranging from testing for breast cancer alleles to mutations linked to cystic fibrosis. Benefits of DTC testing are the accessibility of tests to consumers, promotion of proactive healthcare and the privacy of genetic information. Possible additional risks of DTC testing are the lack of governmental regulation and the potential misinterpretation of genetic information.
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Famous quotes containing the words genetic and/or testing:
“Man is not merely the sum of his masks. Behind the shifting face of personality is a hard nugget of self, a genetic gift.... The self is malleable but elastic, snapping back to its original shape like a rubber band. Mental illness is no myth, as some have claimed. It is a disturbance in our sense of possession of a stable inner self that survives its personae.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)
“Now I see that going out into the testing ground of men it is the tongue and not the deed that wins the day.”
—Sophocles (497–406/5 B.C.)