Radio Review: The Business of Genetic Ancestry
By Matthew Thomas,
BioNews
| 06. 08. 2015
Untitled Document
'Genetics is messy and history is foggy. We are a species that is mobile and horny.' That is how Adam Rutherford quite accurately sums up the quest for understanding the human story in his documentary for BBC Radio 4, The Business of Genetic Ancestry.
Rutherford (no relation to Ernest Rutherford, the atom-splitting father of nuclear physics) is a journalist and geneticist who has taken extensive and hilarious exception to what he and many others see as the exploitative nature of genetic ancestry testing. Companies will, for a decent wodge of cash, unravel strands of DNA from a vial of your spit, compare them to other people's spit, and figure whom you might be related to. You could find previously unknown half-siblings or cousins - a powerful tool indeed - but this isn't where the problem lies. Some companies make claims about your 'deep' ancestry, churning out evocative and provocative results showing how you are a Celtic Viking Saracen...
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 Frankie Fattorini, Pharmaceutical Technology | 12.02.2025
Próspera, a charter city on Roatán island in Honduras, hosts two biotechs working to combat ageing through gene therapy, as the organisation behind the city advertises its “flexible” regulatory jurisdiction to attract more developers.
In 2021, Minicircle set up a...
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...
