For his book Am I My Genes? Confronting Fate and Family Secrets in an Age of Genetic Testing, Robert Klitzman, a clinical psychiatrist at Columbia University, interviewed a number of people with breast cancer, Huntington's disease, or alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. Based on knowing their genetics, these individuals "had to make very difficult decisions — whom to tell, and whether to have children, abort fetuses, screen embryos, or adopt," Klitzman tells Bloomberg News' Manuela Hoelterhoff. Hoelterhoff says that "confusion, anger, and regret infuse [the patients'] stories as they unfold."
Klitzman, himself, has not had his genes scanned. "I guess I like my life the way it is. I don't want to complicate it," he says.