New Dating Sites Match People Through DNA Tests

The Installer writes with this excerpt from an Associated Press report: "A couple of genetic testing companies are promising to match couples based on DNA testing, touting the benefits of biological compatibility. The companies claim that a better biological match will mean better sex, less cheating, longer-lasting love and perhaps even healthier children. 'How many dating services can you think of where they can suggest you might have better children?' said Eric Holzle, founder of ScientificMatch.com, one of the first online dating sites to use DNA. ... The idea is that people tend to be attracted to those who have immune system genes that are dissimilar from their own. Biologists say the HLA genes of the immune system — which are responsible for recognizing and marking foreign cells such as viruses so other parts of the immune system can attack them — also determine body odor 'fingerprints.' And people tend to be attracted to the natural body odors of those who have different HLA genes from their own."

Comments

Hmm...

[shrtcircuit]

Yeah... Submit your DNA profile to a for-profit corporation that lets you do things with it through a web interface. Your info will never be hacked. Your info will never be sold. Your info will never be given to government agencies. Trust us.

What could possibly go wrong here?

Re:Hmm...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

While the science is still in its infancy, there are already a fair few bits of genome that your insurance company would probably enjoy having a look at.

Re:Hmm...

[commodore64_love]

>>>DNA info? What's it good for?

Watch the movie GATTACA where people were denied jobs (or vice-versa promoted) strictly based upon their DNA. The ability for bosses, politicians, whoever to just look at your "program code" and filter for the best candidate is dangerous. It takes away opportunity who may be slightly dumber, but with more determination and focus to get the job done. (Again I recommend watching gattaca... one of the best science movies of the last two decades.)

Re:Hmm...

[ikegami]

But what about the idea that information MUST BE FREE?

Information wants to be free. The claims refers to any and all of the following facts:

• When information is shared, the sharer loses none of the information.

• The cost of sharing information information is next to nil if not nil. It is an infinite good. In a free market, it's price WILL go down to zero (regardless of whether you think it SHOULD or not).

• Information sharing almost always benefits society.

But must information be free? No, not always. There is value in privacy, for example. So while your DNA information "wants to be free" doesn't mean you should "let it free".

-----

You might be wondering how there can exist privacy if information wants to be free.

Notice that I said the cost of information will drop to nothing in a free market. Privacy can exist by hindering the market for information deemed private. One means of achieving this is through the creation of laws that (artifically) raise the cost of the information (by imposing penalities for inappropriately sharing and using the information).

Unfortunately, the legal landscape has not yet dealt with DNA sharing in any serious manner. For now, all you can do is hide your DNA. Once it's known by someone else, it's outside your control.

Untrue

[Mikkeles]

'The companies claim that a better biological match will mean better sex, less cheating, longer-lasting love and perhaps even healthier children.'

They're lying.

Re:oh and

[umghhh]

why would anyone want a lifetime membership if the company were successful?

Re:Offspring

[jcr]

There's a lot of potential good that can happen from deliberate changes to how we select mates.

The key word is "we". WE choose, not anyone else. If you're talking about individuals picking and choosing their spouses, that's their own business. Once you move from that to outside forces choosing for them, it's evil.

-jcr