If I find out my genetic predispositions, rest assured that I won’t be telling anybody. Besides, due to the way in which Dor Yeshorim works, I’ll have no idea of which gene mutation Yosef has. Neither will he- I certainly won’t be telling him which one I have so that he can compare. Neither of us will ever know based on our Dor Yeshorim results solely. I will know my personal, privately discovered results, which means that I may or may not infer from this his results (depending on how many genetic mutations I have- if I have more than one, how do I know which he has?). If this were Dor Yeshorim’s fear, that some random girl will know some what genetic mutation some random guy- who she won’t even be dating- has, then they’d make it a lot harder for you to find out your genetic profile after the fact. Perhaps that’s impossible and this is the best they can do- I don’t know. I’m not saying that I don’t get why they do it- I’m just saying that it’s annoying. Call it my personal bratty vent, if it makes you happy.
How on earth can you know the “only reason” why I’d want to know a particular piece of information? As someone very interested in genetics, medicine, genealogy, history, etc., personally, one of my biggest and most impossible desires is to create a genetic family tree. Just to be able to follow all the different patterns of genes, dominant, recessive, homozygous, heterozygous, X-linked, mitochondrial, codominant… I’ve done this on a smaller scale in biology and genetics classes, but this would be huge. It’s impossible without an INCREDIBLE amount of time (-travel) and effort, but it’s something that I’d absolutely love to do. If you can’t relate to that, then you can have NO idea what my “only reason” for wanting to do something is. Everyone has their own reasons and interests. What do you think it would do for me if I found out I had a Tay Sachs gene? For me, it would be the same thing as having a Dor Yeshorim test, just more personalized. I think that’s fascinating- if you disagree, that’s fine. If you thought I’d be completely flipping out, you’re wrong. I’m not sure what you think, exactly. I’m really confused about the point you’re trying to make. The stigma would seem to me (correct me if I’m wrong) that having an Ashkenazi Jewish genetic disease mutation, even if it’s recessive, would be seen as a “flaw”- at least, that’s the reason I’ve been given as far as the reason why Dor Yeshorim was created in the first place. My point is that it is not, as I’ve explained. Zehu. If it’s not a flaw, I fail to see the stigma.
That said, I’m not sure I would find out if it weren’t for the whole marriage part of it. If that weren’t a worry, I’d probably skip it, the same way I’m skipping finding out whether I have the gene for, say, albinism, as that’s a lot more common in other populations. I’d find out about these particular genes because they’re truly important for me to know- however, truthfully, I probably will go through Dor Yeshorim and not investigate further. It will depend on my mood at any given point, but right now I think I’ll skip.
While it’s obviously not mindless, once you know what you’re looking for (and for these mutations, they obviously do), genetic testing is really not necessarily that complex. Some, in fact, are downright simple (comparatively, at least), such as those for which you can use restriction endonucleases and gel electrophoresis, in which case you don’t have to sequence the DNA at all. (I did this myself in a lab for AP Bio.) While you do need to find the right restriction endonucleases, once you have, it’s practically a rote process. For those that need sequencing, once you know what gene you’re looking for, it’s a lot easier than it seems. What’s really difficult is figuring out in the first place what genetic mutation causes a particular result- that can take years or even decades. Once that’s known, however, finding it again is a lot simpler than that.