Scientists To Post Individuals' DNA Sequences To Web

isBandGeek() writes "With shocking disregard to their personal privacy, at least 10 people volunteered to release their entire medical records and DNA sequences in order to get their DNA decoded and analyzed. 'They include Steven Pinker, the prominent Harvard University psychologist and author, Esther Dyson, a trainee astronaut and Misha Angrist, an assistant professor at Duke University. They have each donated a piece of skin to the project at Harvard University and agreed to have the results posted on the internet. The three are among the first 10 volunteers in the Personal Genome Project, a study at Harvard University Medical School aimed at challenging the conventional wisdom that the secrets of our genes are best kept to ourselves. The goal of the project is to speed medical research by dispensing with the elaborate precautions traditionally taken to protect the privacy of human subjects."

Comments

I'd do this in a second

[moderatorrater]

Shocking disregard for personal privacy? Nobody can do more than glean a few random statistical probabilities from DNA as it stands now. It may be that in ten years we'll know more, but if our knowledge of DNA goes at the same pace that it did for the last ten years, it'll be half a century before we're able to tell enough about a person that it could be considered an invasion of privacy.

If this will really help the science move forward more quickly, then the benefits of everyone not knowing my DNA will easily be offset by the new scientific knowledge.

Re:I'd do this in a second

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody can do more than glean a few random statistical probabilities from DNA as it stands now.

And yet in the swirling mists of half-truths and the unknown, people act the craziest.

I'm sure that the 8th volunteer (who has the marker for "10% risk of cancer") will be grateful after a decade of being uninsurable when the scientists go "oh wait, that should be 0.01%"

Re:I'd do this in a second

[Xaria]

Worst-case scenario, they can move to a country that actually cares about its citizens and provides decent free health care. And if they're not planning to commit a crime then they probably don't care about being on a DNA database.

Let's get over the paranoia, people ... the amount of data your average kid puts on Facebook is enough to impersonate them.

Re:I'd do this in a second

[mollymoo]

I'm sure that the 8th volunteer (who has the marker for "10% risk of cancer") will be grateful after a decade of being uninsurable when the scientists go "oh wait, that should be 0.01%"

If people are being denied medical care because they release information about their health the problem lies not with the person releasing their information, but with the society in which they live.

Re:I'd do this in a second

[philspear]

Well, that will give them moral superiority as they declare bankrupcy following a life-saving emergency surgery.

"I may live in a box, but it's cause the system is broken, not my fault."

Re:I'd do this in a second

[mollymoo]

The scarcity business doesn't apply, every Western economy can afford universal medical care.

Re:Coming from someone who cares about security

[dex22]

This is not necessarily true. The UK DNA database allows the police to make educated guesses about the last name of the originator of a DNA sample, as your father often will have the surname name as you. Is it a stretch that with a possible name, race, and good probabilities of the contents of their medical records, it only takes a small push to get laws passed making this information part of the Government-accessible domain?

Whatever

[guyminuslife]

Subby: Don't do that! You're violating your own privacy!
Volunteer: I'm doing this for the benefit of science.
Subby: Yes, but then...people can look up your DNA and medical records!
Volunteer: Uh. That's the point.
Subby: But people can see them!
Volunteer: Yes. I understand that. I am. Voluntarily. Releasing. My. Own. Records.
Subby: But bad stuff could happen!
Volunteer: Probably not. But I'm okay if it does. The overall benefits outweigh the personal risk.
Subby: But that's....bad!
Volunteer: Why?
Subby puts on tin-foil hat.