| Allow me to offer a different perspective: I've used 23andme and it was one of the best decisions ever. Not so much for the Ancestry part, which was also interesting and explained my above-average cold tolerance, but for the health stuff. Granted, being from Europe they don't directly offer health services, but you can get the raw data and upload it to various sites for interpretation -- ranging from really accessible to follow-the-rabbit-hole style. I've accepted from the start that everything is uncertain, or just a possibility, but it was still very useful, because I knew what to look for and thus able to validate easily if true or not. Some things that were in the reports I already knew, some I suspected, some I had no idea and would have never guessed -- this last group had the most impact. Some examples: allergies, motion sickness, needing above average amounts of vitamin C. All very easy to test, but with an amazing quality of life improvement gained as a result of just changing some simple things. So yes, a US company has my personal DNA data, maybe they will take care of my privacy, maybe not, but the quality of life gains were worth it, for me. What other alternative would people like me have, from countries where there is no access to good doctors, of finding stuff like that, had there not been 23andme? Especially since I didn't even know what I was looking for. |
I took parent's post less as a blanket warning against doing DNA tests, and more of a caution to consider the implications.
I think there is value in services like 23andme, and even if there are risks that the information will be misused, the risks are worth it. I don't mean the risks associated with case of a specific person, but the research and services associated with DNA sequencing in general.
Maybe 23andme is not the way forward, and eventually some other (better) services will arise, but we (humanity) are in something of an uncharted territory here, so there is need for a bit of trial and error. Yes there be dragons, and occasionally we'll have our eyebrows singed, but advances in medicine and biology (as your case highlights) are vast.