Doris Teichler Zallen, To Test or Not To Test: A Guide to Genetic Screening and Risk
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BOOK REVIEW
Doris Teichler Zallen, To Test or Not To Test: A Guide to Genetic Screening and Risk Rutgers University Press, New Jersey, 2008, $18.95. ISBN: 978-0-8135-4377-2 Jennifer Geurts
Received: 22 September 2009 / Accepted: 7 October 2009 / Published online: 23 October 2009 # National Society of Genetic Counselors, Inc. 2009
The author of To Test or Not To Test wrote this book for individuals considering genetic testing with the goal of facilitating the decision-making process. The book does provide insight into unique struggles facing patients who consider genetic testing by providing actual personal accounts of their experiences. The author states that the content may be useful for policy makers and health care professionals, “to help reveal the personal values, family dilemmas, and societal realities associated with such testing” (p.xii Preface). The author, Doris Teichler Zallen, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Science and Technology in Society at Virginia Tech. She has devoted the latter part of her career to research on the ethical, social and policy issues that surround genetic testing. She also authored the book Does It Run in the Family?: A Consumer’s Guide to DNA Testing for Genetic Disorders (Rutgers University Press), published in 1997. That book addresses genetic testing for rare disorders. Following that publication, Dr. Teichler Zallen chose to center her research on common diseases and the new genetic tests that will likely become commonplace in the health-care field. Her most recent work, To Test or Not To Test, developed from her research while at the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences at Michigan State University. Dr. Teichler Zallen gathered data from health organizations, patient-interest groups, and informal Web-based groups. She spoke with 100 individuals who shared their experience with the decision-making process involved in genetic testing (of note, only half of these individuals had met with a genetic counselor). Dr. Teichler J. Geurts (*) Aurora Health Care, Milwaukee, WI, USA e-mail: [email protected]
Zallen also spoke with a number of professionals including genetic counselors, scientists, physicians, and academicians to gain insight into the profession challenges encountered by specialists involved in different aspects of genetic testing. The book consists of nine chapters, an appendix which provides a genetics review, a glossary, and a list of resources. Throughout the text, the author focuses on four main diseases for which genetic testing is currently available: hemochromatosis, Alzheimer’s disease, hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, and hereditary colon cancer. The first two chapters serve as an introduction to and overview of genetic testing. Included are a historical description of genetic testing and explanations of new genetic tests. Chapters three through six detail the four main questions Dr. Teichler Zallen considers to be essential to the genetic testing decision making process: Am I at higher risk for this disease than other
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