Is fatalism a positive or negative approach to genetically predicted illness? All forms of fatalistic belief, exempt the individual from any personal responsibility, intentions or free will. However can we even use fatalism as a legitimate approach in light of genetic knowledge? Before genetic testing, there was no way to know exactly which genes one carries or how they may be transmitted and expressed. If a disease then appeared throughout the generations it could be argued to be down to fate, luck (or even curse or punishment if those sit well with the family narrative). Now that we know the genetic information is available to us, can we exempt ourselves from intentions?
“As Davison, Frankel and Davey Smith (1992a and b) note, fatalistic accounts of health and illness, in which illness is seen as predestined either as a result of luck, chance or some form of divine intervention, are used by individuals to absolve themselves of responsibility for their health. Likewise, the carriers in this study can be seen as embracing a material form of predestiny – genetic determinism – to absolve themselves of the responsibility for putting their descendants at genetic risk of disease. Fate – manifest as genetic determinism – removes causality from the personal sphere.” (Hallowell continues)
Can it be argued then, that fate is an imperative family delusion? Could it be that a family that discovered a mutation running down the line has to revert to fatalism as a way of keeping together? The joint belief in the cruelty of fate used as a tool to extinguish personal guilt or resentment
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