The exploration of the human genome has long been relegated to elite scientists in research laboratories. But that is about to change. An infant industry is capitalizing on the plunging cost of genetic testing technology to offer any individual unprecedented ”” and unmediated ”” entree to their own DNA.
For as little as $1,000 and a saliva sample, customers will be able to learn what is known so far about how the billions of bits in their biological code shape who they are. Three companies have already announced plans to market such services, one yesterday.
Offered the chance to be among the early testers, I agreed, but not without reservations. What if I learned I was likely to die young? Or that I might have passed on a rogue gene to my daughter? And more pragmatically, what if an insurance company or an employer used such information against me in the future?
Odds are you have passed on anywhere from 6 to 10 rogue genes to offspring based on empirical studies of the relative frequencies of events in the general population. Now, suppose you have an identifiable 100 possibilities, so what? I doubt the availability of a database to be useful in any significant way. But if having the latest gadget is important, here’s to ya.