Gene testing reaches the masses
What kind of genes are you wearing? No, that’s not a typo. I’m asking if you know the down-and-dirty details of your genetic make-up. Better still do you want to know? Do you want other people to know, too?
These may seem like strange questions, but they’re the first things that came to my mind when I read that a company backed by Internet search-engine giant Google is now marketing direct-to-consumer genetic testing for about $400 bucks.
The company 23andMe has discovered a new DNA analysis chip that will significantly cut the cost of gene scanning, opening up the market for “affordable” genetic testing. As a result, 23andMe has lowered their price from $999 to $400. (Their competitors generally charge anywhere from $1,000 to $2,500 for a similar test.)
23andMe’s website claims that they “democratize personal genetics,” a lofty way of asserting that they’ve opened up this field to everyone by charging such a low price. Why get a personal DNA test? The ostensible reason to drop four bills on a personal DNA test is to predict potential health risks and predispositions to certain ailments, or to track your ancestry.
According to 23andMe co-founder Anne Wojcicki (who is, rather conveniently, the wife of Google co-founder Sergy Brin hmmm): “We really believe strongly that at some point everyone who’s born will be genotyped. You’ll have that information and you’ll use that to help guide some of your health care decisions.”
On the surface, this would seem to make sense. But maybe I’ve read a little too much Orwell to be thrilled by the fact that we’re on the cusp of some strange future where genetic information is shared among friends like it’s a family album. I also have serious misgivings genotyping for medical reasons, and I’m not the only one with these concerns.
Recently, I wrote about the first-ever federal genetic rights bill being passed: the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), which will protect Americans against health insurance or employment discrimination based on their genetic information.
Which is why I found it particularly disturbing that, in addition to providing genetic information to individuals, 23andMe will also compile databases of customers’ genetic information that they will allow researchers to access – theoretically to help discover more information about the supposed hereditary links to diseases such as breast cancer, prostate cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and Parkinson’s disease.
Theoretically, that is.
It bothers me that there’s the suggestion that your DNA info should be placed into a database and passed around to any “researcher” who wants to take a look. Your DNA code should be as closely guarded as the password to your ATM card, your online banking password, your social security number, or your credit cards – maybe more so!
Linda Avey, the other co-founder of 23andMe, says that the price cut will lead to an inundation of customers – or as she terms it, “new information” – that will speed “discoveries” in the lab. But so far this hasn’t been the case.
“It’s just a data problem,” she said. “We don’t have enough.”
Yeah, not enough suckers willing to pony up $400 of their own cash so you can start conducting research on their personal genetic code.
Thankfully, I’m not the only one raising the alarm about these new gene scanning companies. Other public health organizations have warned – rightfully – that it’s too soon to base major medical decisions on the supposed links between genetics and disease since the links are still being researched.
23andMe and other such companies have even claimed that they are “informational” companies, not medical companies (thus allowing them to skirt regulation and scrutiny by legitimate state control agencies). But health regulators in California and New York have recently wised up to this, and lowered the boom.
The bottom line: beware of people trying to get into your genes.
