The Globe and Mail has assembled a wonderful set of articles, polls, and videos about personal genetics, in large part to bring awareness to the launch of the Personal Genome Project – Canada. The series is called “Our Time to Lead.” The polls that look at Canadian’s attitudes about genetic testing are worth a look, and in particular, we think the video clips are an excellent tool.
The videos, 4 in total, hit the balance between telling the emotional, familial and social side to issues but also accurately present the scientific content and the attendant questions and opportunities in genome sequencing. The video clips could be used in conjunction with some of pgEd’s lesson, too! We think this clip about open, informed consent and the limits of privacy promises fits with our lesson “Introduction to Personal Genetics” in that it tackles an essential idea that runs through all our lessons. The clip where sisters discuss their experiences with genetic testing and breast cancer could be used to highlight some of the main ideas in our lesson “Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Testing.“