Shots - Health Blog Thu October 11, 2012 Bioethicists Call For
Privacy Protections For Personal Genomes When a stranger can
gain access to someone's entire genetic code by picking up a
used coffee cup, it presents a whole new thicket of concerns
about privacy and security. Actually, we're already there,
though we're still in the early stages of what's shaping up,
after all the years of hype, as a genuine revolution. Just take
a look at Rob Stein's recent series on the $1,000 genome to see
how far we've come and where we're headed. A sample of saliva
taken from a coffee cup or a Q-tip is enough for technicians to
reveal someone's genes, for better and for worse. Reuters'
Sharon Begley points to EasyDNA, a California company, that's
already doing ancestry, health and paternity testing on samples
ranging from cigarette butts to licked stamps. Against that
backdrop, the Presidential Commission for the Study of
Bioethical Issues just released recommendations on how the
country should proceed along the genomic path