A herança dos “mal-nascidos”: Dos filhos do passado aos filhos da ciência

This paper presents some of the results of a study on the daily life of people at genetic risk for hereditary cancer. Following a qualitative methodology, this study assessed all the work of individual management of that risk, from the time of the diagnosis to the setting in motion of the mechanisms, strategies and conceptions that allow people to give meaning to what has happened. Based on individual reports, the analytic perspective regarding the social representation of the disease is structured around the time that cancer “takes away” and the time that hereditary cancer “gives”, and it points to the importance of an attitude of positive acceptance of the risk, expressed in both individual and collective hopes for a better future, which is guaranteed by scientific and technological evolution. The subjects that face a genetic risk that is beyond their control put pressure on science (genetics) and medicine, whose power and prestige are never questioned.