This Year’s Stocking Stuffers

Posted by Osagie Obasogie December 15, 2008
Biopolitical Times

What do you give the people on your holiday shopping list who have everything? Themselves!

Just in time for the holiday season – free shipping until 12/22 and all – DNA 11 has lowered the price of its mini portraits to $169.  DNA Mini Portraits are 8” x 10” custom-made artistic renderings of individualized genetic sequences. Swab your cheek and FedEx the sample to their corporate headquarters, and they’ll send you a glass framed, Technicolor depiction of what a portion of your genome might vaguely look like.  

Not to be outdone in this race for your holiday bio-dollar, personal genomics company 23andme has recently followed up on its price slash to announce a “Holiday Season Multi-Pack Discount” through December 31st. Now, entire families can get into the holiday gift-giving spirit and save $200 when they order three or more kits.

The business of recreational genetics has always been about making money off of the public’s often-misplaced fascination with DNA – even when the product isn’t able to say very much about the consumer. Given the exuberance brought by the holiday season, don’t be surprised if you end up unwrapping one of these gifts in the next few weeks.