The Health 202: Why the medical community is concerned about a genetic testing boom
By Paige Winfield Cunningham,
Washington Post
| 03. 27. 2018
The Food and Drug Administration’s move to allow 23andMe to screen people for breast cancer risks may unleash a flood of new direct-to-consumer genetic tests.
But some genetic experts and members of the medical community are raising concerns about whether consumers can truly understand the test results — and how they will handle such sensitive information.
Emily Drabant Conley, 23andMe’s vice president of business development, called the FDA’s decision this month to let the private company offer the country’s first and only direct-to-consumer genetic health risk test for cancer an “enormous win.”
The company is hoping to expand its genetic testing offerings to allow people to understand more about how their DNA affects the risk of developing a certain disease.
“We as a company absolutely want to continue expanding. There are still things that are not in the product today where genetics can be quite informative to consumers,” Drabant Conley said. “We are absolutely in the process of working to get more reports cleared through the FDA on a variety of topics we know consumers care about.”
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)...
Related Articles
By Josie Ensor, The Times | 12.09.2025
A fertility start-up that promises to screen embryos to give would-be parents their “best baby” has come under fire for a “misuse of science”.
Nucleus Genomics describes its mission as “IVF for genetic optimisation”, offering advanced embryo testing that allows...
By Hannah Devlin, The Guardian | 12.06.2025
Couples undergoing IVF in the UK are exploiting an apparent legal loophole to rank their embryos based on genetic predictions of IQ, height and health, the Guardian has learned.
The controversial screening technique, which scores embryos based on their DNA...
By Vardit Ravitsky, The Hastings Center | 12.04.2025
Embryo testing is advancing fast—but how far is too far? How and where do we draw the line between preventing disease and selecting for “desirable” traits? What are the ethical implications for parents, children, clinicians, and society at large? These...
By Grace Won, KQED Forum [with CGS' Katie Hasson] | 12.02.2025
In the U.S., it’s illegal to edit genes in human embryos with the intention of creating a genetically engineered baby. But according to the Wall Street Journal, Bay Area startups are focused on just that. It wouldn’t be the first...
