BLOG: How much would you pay not to know the future?

The current issue of Ocular Surgery News explores the question of routine genetic testing for macular degeneration risk, a practice that the American Academy of Ophthalmology has, probably appropriately, come out against. Aside from the technical limitations of genetic testing, one has to wonder at the personal value of trying to predict the future. In this age of information technology, it is generally believed that bringing facts into the light is always a good thing. Often that's the case, and with macular degeneration, one of medicine's most-feared ailments, many family members of people with this condition want to know their own risk. Certainly, they deserve to have whatever answers modern medicine can offer. But not all information is necessarily good.