Stark Choices from New Knowledge

Ms. Jolie’s piece in The New York Times echoed for me with a play I wrote a few years ago about the race to decode the human genome, thus gaining access to all sorts of new information which we now have to face with sober eyes.

 

KELLIE:  . . .   You discovered the Breast Cancer Gene. 

FRANCIS:  The BRCA 1 sequence.  Helped to discover.  Yes.

KELLIE:  My mom died of breast cancer.

FRANCIS:  I’m sorry to hear that.

KELLIE:  Ashkenazi Jew.

FRANCIS:  Then you must know Ashkenazi Jew’s are several times more likely to develop the mutation

KELLIE:  Yup.  And if they have it they face an 80% to 90% chance of getting breast cancer in their lifetimes, particularly at a young age.  And you must know that some women who test positive—and I can’t say as I blame ‘em—elect to under go prophylactic mastectomy.

FRANCIS:  Yes I do know that.  May I ask: have you tested for the sequence?

KELLIE:  No.

FRANCIS:  You should.

KELLIE:  I know.

FRANCIS:  You shouldn’t wait too long.

KELLIE:  I’m not in a rush to chop my tits off.

Related articles

Why Curt Dempster Commissioned Me to Write THE SEQUENCE

BRCA testing: what does it all mean?

What is the BRCA1 breast cancer gene fault?

Angelina Jolie's Double Mastectomy Choice Increasingly Common, Still Medically Murky

Comments

[Gary Young]

Wow, Paul...such prescience. As I expressed about your White Boy Can Take a Punch piece, respect.

[Paul Mullin]

Hey, thanks Gary!