Wider Debate Swirls Over Ruling That Curtailed Berkeley's DNA Program

After months of debate, a ruling by the California Department of Public Health last week put an end to the most controversial part of a student DNA-testing project at the University of California at Berkeley, but now another debate has opened over how academic research will be affected.

Some researchers fear that the health department's position on the Berkeley project could have broader implications for academic research in California, limiting the conditions under which subjects of research studies could learn about potential health issues. Others say those concerns are unfounded.

Berkeley's plan to teach incoming freshmen about personal genetics by allowing them to obtain personal results for three genetic markers sparked a political firestorm. The program put Berkeley in the middle of a heated national debate over the ethics of personal DNA testing, driven by rapid scientific advances and the explosive growth of the personal-testing industry.

State lawmakers unsuccessfully tried to pass a bill to discourage the project, and advocacy groups and some researchers called the program unwise and potentially unethical. Last week, state health regulators said that as long...