Responsible Genetic Testing

Dear Visitor

We are a group of citizens, healthcare providers, scientists, public policy makers, legislators, scientists, and health care consumers who are concerned about direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising for genetic testing. As more genetic tests become available, it is critical that DTC advertising is subject to federal oversight (as is advertising for medications) to ensure that these ads are not misleading, inaccurate, using scare tactics, or encouraging patients to contact the very company that is profiting from each test sale. Please see the bullet points below with references for more information on DTC advertising.

You Can Help!

Stop this advertising until such oversight is in place!
Please:

Sign this on-line petition;
Pass it on to your friends and family;
Pass it on to colleagues in health care, science, public policy and public health;
Research which legislators in your state are interested in Consumer Protection and contact them by phone, e-mail, and fax to let them know that you want federal oversight of all DTC advertising for genetic testing before it comes to your area. (Click here to email this petition to others)

Article Three

Gollust SE, Hull SC, and Wilfond BS. Limitations of direct-to-consumer advertising for clinical genetic testing.
JAMA 2002; 288(14):1762-1767

Although direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertisements for pharmaceuticals have been appearing in the mass media for 20 years, DTC advertisements for genetic testing have only recently appeared. Advertisements for genetic testing can provide both consumers and physicians with information about test availability in an expanding market. However, 3 factors limit the value and appropriateness of advertisements: complex information, a complicated social context surrounding genetics, and a lack of consensus about the clinical utility of some tests. Consideration of several advertisements suggests that they overstate the value of genetic testing for consumers' clinical care. Furthermore, advertisements may provide misinformation about genetics, exaggerate consumers' risks, endorse a deterministic relationship between genes and disease, and reinforce associations between diseases and ethnic groups. Advertising motivated by factors other than evidence of the clinical value of genetic tests can manipulate consumers' behavior by exploiting their fears and worries. At this time, DTC advertisements are inappropriate, given the public's limited sophistication regarding genetics and the lack of comprehensive premarket review of tests or oversight of advertisement content. Existing Federal Trade Commission and Food and Drug Administration regulations for other types of health-related advertising should be applied to advertisements for genetic tests.