After reading "Immune to Reality" by Gilbert, I decided to find more information about one of the studies cited following his piece, and I ended up choosing the 27th source he has cited, entitled "The Psychological consequences of Predictive Testing for Huntington's Disease" by S. Wiggins. Upon a quick google search, I was able to find the abstract section of the scientific paper published in 1992. The experiment, conducted in Canada, used genetic analysis to predict the likelihood of occurrence of Huntington's disease in 135 participants and then had individual meetings with the participants 7-10 days, 6 months, and 12 months after receiving their test results to analyse how knowing their results affected the participants psychologically. According to this study, people whose results showed no change in risk of developing Huntington's showed a much higher level of distress than those who had an increased or decreased risk. The paper, being a scientific paper, really is fact based. It uses quantitative data and measurements to describe the study and it's purpose, and really takes no rhetorical stance aside from one which seeks to inform, rather than persuade. Being a scientific document, the tone is also practically nonexistent, simply stating facts and how they're analyzed for the purpose of the study. The citation can be found in the NHR on page 145 and is as follows:
27. S. Wiggins et al., "The Psychological Consequences of Predictive Testing for Huntington's Disease," New England Journal of Medicine 327: 1401-5 (1992).
The website I found the abstract on is cited below.
S, Wiggins. "The Psychological Consequences of Predictive Testing for Huntington's Disease. Canadian Collaborative Study of Predictive Testing." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.
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