Genetic Information is Irrelevant to Most People's Care
By Press Release,
GeneWatch UK
| 06. 04. 2014
GeneWatch UK today criticised a speech by the new NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens, in which he reportedly argued that the NHS must be transformed to make people's personal genetic information the basis of their treatments (1).
"Stevens appears shockingly ignorant of the irrelevance of genetic information to most people's care" said Dr Helen Wallace, Director of GeneWatch UK, "Plans to sequence everybody's genomes in the NHS are driven by commercial interests and are not in the public interest".
Successive governments have made attempts to build a DNA database in the NHS in England by stealth, by sequencing every baby at birth and storing whole genomes in electronic medical records, a plan backed by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt (2). The current version of this plan would involve sharing whole or partial DNA sequences (genomes or genotypes) with companies like Google, which would use genetic information and health data to calculate personal risk assessments for feedback to patients (3). Massive investment from taxpayers would be required as part of a public-private partnership that allowed commercial exploitation...
Related Articles
By Yelena Biberman and Jonathan D. Moreno, Bioethics Forum | 04.16.2024
A quiet biological revolution in warfare is underway. The genome is emerging as a new domain of conflict. The level of destruction that only nuclear weapons could previously achieve is fast becoming as accessible as a cyberattack.
Now for the...
By Jorge Barrera and Rachel Houlihan, CBC | 04.09.2024
A Canadian DNA laboratory knowingly delivered prenatal paternity test results that routinely identified the wrong biological fathers — ruling out the real dads — and left a trail of shattered lives around the globe, a CBC News investigation has found...
By Timnit Gebru and Émile P. Torres, First Monday | 04.14.2024
The stated goal of many organizations in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) is to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI), an imagined system with more intelligence than anything we have ever seen. Without seriously questioning whether such a system can...
By Carey Gillan, UnSpun | 03.18.2024
A Mexican standoff with the United States turned into a Mexican smack-down this month with the release of Mexico’s formal rebuttal to US efforts to overturn limits Mexico has ordered on the use of genetically modified (GM) corn and the...