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Comment by Alex3917 | Hacker News Reader

"Will I be prevented from purchasing a glucose meter because I can not be trusted to know my own glucose levels?"

Then again, the fact that you (apparently) don't know that home glucose meters are largely a hoax shows why they want to regulate DNA testing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/health/policy/19monitor.ht...

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This is exactly a situation where the FDA should step in. The FDA should make sure that people can trust what they are buying (when it pertains to health), not make sure that people don't have the choice in the first place.

Actually there is another regulatory body called the FTC that does that.

That article doesn't even come close to saying that glucose meters are a hoax. It says that they're poorly regulated and fail far too often, which is much different from saying the principles they're based on are fraudulent, as is the case with the IED "detectors".

Glucose meters may be off by 20%, but you're still better off having one than not.

I am not so concerned about the regulation of DNA testing's quality as I am about availability of information.

Interesting find, but I don't know if it's applicable. He probably doesn't know too much about glucose meters, because he's not diabetic.

"He probably doesn't know too much about glucose meters, because he's not diabetic."

Seeing as glucose meters are basically only used by diabetics, your assumption that most diabetics would know that glucose meters are fraudulent seems empirically false.

Virtually all diabetics use glucose meters, despite the fact that they are basically the Iraqi IED detectors of medical hardware.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/middleeast/04sensors...

Virtually all studies (and there have been many) have shown that people with diabetes who use glucose meters regularly are at markedly reduced risk of complications than those who do not.

WRT the OP, unless you are advocating that the FDA should allow home genetics testing provided it is held to high standards, your analogy does not hold. As stated, it seems that you are implying that people would be better off without home glucose meters. a proposition that is demonstrably false.

> Seeing as glucose meters are basically only used by diabetics, your assumption that most diabetics would know that glucose meters are fraudulent seems empirically false.

I did not want to imply that assumption. I want to say that non-diabetics don't care about glucose meters enough, and he probably only brought it up for the sake of rhetorics.

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