Why Genetic Self-Test Kits Should Not Be Allowed Into Canada

For $199, Canadians will soon be able to buy the latest genetic play kit – and will be able to do so without any serious regulation by Health Canada with regard to its uses or usefulness. Nor will there be any oversight for identifying its potential harms.

23andMe Inc. has been vigorously marketing its DNA testing kit for about eight years in the United States. And apparently 20,000 Canadians have been sufficiently convinced of this commercial DIY-approach to learning about genetic risk factors they may be said to have, as well as about their possible genetic ancestry, that they have laid out the funds needed to import the product to use at home.

Even if one ignores some very important issues – such as just what DNA patterns can predict about the likelihood of developing any of the diseases for which risk factor screening is done (basically, little if anything); how using the 23andMe tests to determine health risks is currently prohibited by the FDA in the U.S.; and the potential for obtaining disrupting, disturbing, or even destructive information about...