With Consumer Genetic Testing, Buyer Beware
By Editorial,
The Boston Globe
| 09. 30. 2014
Untitled Document
THE ERA OF direct-to-consumer genetic testing means that anyone can pay $99, spit into a plastic vial, and get back a detailed readout on ancestry and risk factors for scores of diseases. At the forefront of this wave is Silicon Valley startup 23andMe, which has collected the DNA of 700,000 members since it was founded in 2006. This flood of data, however, raises a host of ethical questions that neither testing firms nor their customers may anticipate — especially when unwanted information invades customers’ lives.
The Food and Drug Administration moved last year to protect DNA testing consumers from being bombarded with alarming warnings and hard-to-interpret risk assessments about their health that might give rise to unnecessary procedures. Still, the company can provide consumers with the raw data, allowing them to find experts to interpret it for them. That’s a fair compromise: Americans should be able to obtain information about their genetic background; testing firms should be able to present that information with a minimum of hype.
Another source of controversy is 23andMe’s growing genetic database. As...
Related Articles
By Annika Inampudi, Science | 08.01.2025
In June, Sara* received a message asking whether she wanted to continue to participate in a massive, multicenter research project led by scientists at Aarhus University in Denmark. The iPsych study, the message said, had sequenced her genetic data from...
The Center for Genetics and Society is delighted to recommend the current edition of GMWatch Review – Number 589. UK-based GMWatch, a long-standing ally, was founded in 1998 by Jonathan Matthews as an independent organization seeking to counter the enormous corporate political power and propaganda of the GMO industry and its supporters. Matthews and Claire Robinson are its directors and managing editors.
CGS works to ensure that social justice, equity, human rights, and democratic governance are front...
By Katherine Drabiak, Journal of Medical Ethics Forum | 08.07.2025
Adapted from Mitochondrial DNA at
National Human Genome Research Institute
Recently, media outlets around the world have been reporting on children born from pronuclear genome transfer (sometimes called “3-parent IVF,” “mitochondrial donation” or “mitochondrial replacement therapy”) at Newcastle Fertility Center...
By Annika Inampudi, Science | 07.10.2025
Before a baby in the United States reaches a few days old, doctors will run biochemical tests on a few drops of their blood to catch certain genetic diseases that need immediate care to prevent brain damage or other serious...