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13,000 Volunteer To Put Personal Genomes Online
Lucas123 writes "The Personal Genome Project, which opened itself up to the public on April 25, has to date signed up 13,000 of the target 100,000 volunteers needed to create the world's first publicly accessible genome database. Volunteers will go through a battery of written tests and then offer DNA samples from which their genetic code will be derived and then published to help scientists discover links between genes and hereditary traits. While the Personal Genome Project won't publish names, just about everything else will be made public, including photos and complete medical histories. Scientists hope to some day have millions of genomes in the database."
who says you have to give them your real name? i personally just signed up to be involved in this project. i'll update my comments once i see what they require from you. if they want your full name and SS# yeah i'd probably assume it could be misused but if they just want a health history to go with your dna i don't see the harm in that.
Putting your genetic composition online is pretty much uhm... identifying yourself.
Given a name and an entire frickin gene sequence... I'd more quickly rely on the latter for identifying an individual.
Who knows... maybe at some point there will be software that can generate a speculative image of a person baed on the data in genes.
Ever watch GATTACA? Think about what they coined "discrimination down to a science". Databases do not need your name to figure out majorities. If insurance companies linked a mole on the left cheekbone to a higher probability of cancer... well, maybe you'd just get the mole removed.
Nevertheless, I'm all for the advancement of science and am interested in contributing to the project. Who knows, maybe if all the pessimists advance the project, it'll be done properly.
Good point. However, if they are not asking you for information that can be used to link directly back to you, then the database is waste of time. What will stop the mis-creants from stuffing junk into the data points? What will prevent someone with a low priority condition, to submit as multiple people in an attempt to up the priority of their condition.
Do they have something on the web site about this?
My reaction when I read the story was (a) Wow, I really want to do this, and (b) what if I'm denied coverage at some point down the road because of it?
As soon as I'm really confident that I won't get burned, I'm in.
And in other news, Apple and others are mainstreaming the use of software to recognize faces, so the omission of names from the database is really a laughable gesture towards privacy. These folks are taking a risk, for sure. But hey, no risk, no rewards. I applaud them.
Currently hooked on AMP
"The" discoverer of the structure of DNA was a group of seven people three of whom won a Nobel prize for it .. Watson, Crick, Wilkins, Stokes ,Wilson, Franklin and Gosling
Rosalind Franklin died of Cancer before she could be nominated for the Nobel prize ...
Puteulanus fenestra mortis
what if I'm denied coverage at some point down the road because of it?
It's only a matter of time.
Modern insurance policies can deny you coverage due to a pre-existing condition. It won't be long before we're able to identify all kinds of disorders and diseases with a simple genetic screening. Then we just call having a 90% chance to develop cancer a pre-existing condition, and you're screwed.
It is going to happen.
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
"The law does not cover life insurance, disability insurance and long-term care insurance." And, if that is the website one liner, I'm guessing that there might be a few other little areas of wiggle room. You can generally find a reason.
As for lethal genes, people don't have many that kick in before/during reproductive maturity. You then have another 30-45 years that you might like to live; but for which selective pressures have historically been a good deal weaker.
No, I think their reasoning is perfectly sound.
In the movie, there are those who choose not to undergo genetic modification for their child, and have it born as is.
There's also the corporate slant; All this modification costs. How much? As much as people can afford (c.f. the US education system). The thing that then differentiates people is the extent of their modifications, and the efficacy of them. The complete set of high flying mods would cost more than most could afford. The middling mods would be aimed at the general populace, and the basic would be aimed at the 'budget' market. Probably just enough to get rid of the susceptability to cancer, heart defects etc. Nothing to add brain/muscle/lifespan.
Seeing as there's a resource, and only so many places that'll be licensed, you really think they'll give it all away for free?