From a GIna Kolata story on the problem facing doctors who screen for disease for which there is not cure, in this case Alzheimer’s.
At Boston University, Dr. Robert Green faced an ethical dilemma. He wanted to test people for a gene, APOE, that has three variants. People with two copies of one of the variants, APO e4, have a 12- to 15-fold increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. People with even one copy of the gene variant have about a threefold increased risk.
Five different published consensus statements by ethicists and neurologists had considered the question of whether people should be told the results of APOE tests. And every one of those committee said the answer is no, do not tell.
Dr. Green wondered if that answer was right.