Your Genetic Make Up to be Stored, Without Consent, for Profit

Dr Helen Wallace, director of GeneWatch UK, warned at a MedConfidential event in London that beyond electronically storing patient records, the next step for the UK is linking these records with DNA and genetic information on an all-in-one database.

It is already public policy, she pointed out, and a Human Genomics Strategy Group (HGSG) urged the need for a national DNA database for personalised medicine last year - which was welcomed by the secretary of state for health, which has asked for the recommendations to be implemented.

Genetic data is massively revealing - and can be used to identify relatives as well as the patient, and can be used to assess the potential for passing recessive genetic disorders on to children.

Anonymisation here, Wallace argued, is impossible. For example, it would be possible to swab DNA from a coffee cup and compare this to your sequence, also linked to your medical record, stored in a research database. The HGSG plan threatens to remove people's right to know exactly who is using their genomic data and why - as...