Church discusses the reasons why individuals may or may not want to learn about their personal genomics and health predictions. One of his major points is that the medical actionability of prediction is an important consideration. For example, newborns are given PKU screenings because they are 1) highly accurate and 2) although PKU is initially genetic, it can easily be prevented by diet. Thus, it makes sense to make this prediction and parents would generally like their infants to receive PKU screenings. My final project is on the topic of mental health prediction, and particularly prediction of depression. The knowledge that one has high risk of developing a mental illness may affect a person's mindset, and it makes me wonder to what extent people would want to know their risk for various mental illnesses. Additionally, depression itself is easy to incorrectly diagnose and it seems like it would be really difficult to assess risk of depression when we often aren't even able to assess depression correctly.
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