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Facing Your Own Genes: A Scary Prospect

NPR's Morning Edition ran a fantastic profile today of former war correspondent Charles Sabine, who underwent testing to see if he had the gene for Huntington's disease, an incurable and devastating disorder that runs in Sabine's family.

Michelle Trudeau reports:

Sabine says that he's seen a lot of death, destruction and suffering throughout the world during his life, but "nothing that I've experienced compares with that test in terms of the terror that it inflicted on me."

The test told Sabine, with cold certainty, that he indeed had the gene for Huntington's and that he would likely die of the disease.

This program aired on November 23, 2009. The audio for this program is not available.

Headshot of Rachel Zimmerman

Rachel Zimmerman Reporter
Rachel Zimmerman previously reported on health and the intersection of health and business for WBUR. She is working on a memoir about rebuilding her family after her husband’s suicide. 

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