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While I totally understand his point about excessive intervention, ignorance is not the answer. You absolutely can say "no" to doctors.

Of course, with tests that are of themselves dangerous, that's another issue. Skip those if the risk/reward is too high.

Getting diagnosed too late is much worse than having to say no.

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The concept of being a “previvor” I first came across in The Gene is worrying to me as well — finding you have a correlated but not actionable association with a disease or other poor medical outcome. I think the “just say no” underplays the challenges that can come from unactionable information.

Both are valid concerns. But I feel that "dying of something that could have been treated, if found earlier" trumps both.

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