Your Personal Genetic Code Handed to You!

Suppose you go to your family doctor, have them run genetic test on you and then they hand you a small digital storage device that contains your complete, personal genetic code!


Sounds like a good plot for a science fiction movie, doesn't it? Well, it's already here! But it will still probably end up the plot of a movie because it spawns tons of questions about what could happen.


Maybe in a few years if you find someone you want to consider marrying you will first give them a copy of your genetic makeup and ask them for theirs so that your doctors can check it out to see how your kids would turn out.

In an article published in the upcoming issue of Science, University of Alberta researcher Tim Caulfield and the co-authors emphasize that we must proceed with caution when it comes to personal genomics projects that represent research milestones but that are full of ethical, social and clinical questions.

Caulfield, who is the Canada Research Chair in Health Law at the U of A and professor and research director in public health sciences, is considered to be one of the foremost experts in health law research in Canada.

Scientists predict that within five years DNA sequencing technologies will be available and affordable enough so that personal genomics will be integrated into routine clinical care. Companies are already responding by offering their services for ancestry tracing, forensics, nutritional advice and reproductive assistance.

What could this kind of development mean in the future? Might health insurance companies start asking for a copy of your genome when you apply for insurance? Could someone end up not ever being able to get health insurance because they seem prone to certain diseases and maladies?

What about professional sports? Maybe the team owners will insist you hand them the blueprint of you before they sign you. Someone being more apt to suffer injuries could show up in your code.

Maybe babies at birth will have their code worked up and their lives all planned out from the start!

This whole issue seems to me to be the two edged sword that science so many times is. The potential for good seems phenomenal! The potential for misuse and inadvertent pigeon holing of some people to their detriment, even life long detriment also seems just as possible.

When it comes to science ethics a lot of times people ask the question, just because we can do something does that mean we should? I think mankind's insatiable desire to learn more and know won't be quenched, but more and more there are going to be areas where we need to realize from the start that we are playing with dynamite and need to proceed with a great deal of caution!

Thank you,

Dave Briggs