Who will weigh genetic tests?

Sharon Georgi still shudders when she thinks of those turbulent few weeks in each of her two pregnancies — the weeks she awaited the results of amniocentesis. More than 35 years old, she feared the genetic test would show an abnormality: What would she do?

Both times her doctor r eported good news, so she didn't have to decide. Now, more than a decade later, Georgi is a seminarian at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. She anticipates counseling parishioners who will struggle with results from a growing number of genetic tests.

In its brief history, genetic testing has forced many to choose between life and death — and to suffer consequences either way. As advances continue at a breathtaking pace, genetic medicine threatens to uproot core understandings not o nly about disease but also about human identity and dignity.