Knowing your demise

[The DaveR]

There's a hugely interesting, and heartbreaking, article in the New York Times (article--login required) today. A synopsis is that there is a definitive genetic test that one can take in order to know if one will develop Huntington's Disease. which, as I understand it, typically develops near middle age and previously was largely tracked, probabalistically, through family history. I can't imagine what it's like to live with that knowledge, or anything approximating it--knowing specifically about your remaining life and how you will lose it. I don't know if I would have the courage to have the test done.