A friend asked me today what I think about what appears to be the imminent demise of the world’s largest for-profit genetic diagnostics company, about which I’ve written nothing whatsoever. Her question though got me thinking, because she referenced a paper I wrote with colleagues some years ago that is still among the most cited things I’ve ever done, which focuses on how the future of eugenics at the turn of the 21st century might take 20th century eugenics and turn it into a market force. Clearly, that future has begun to come true…but the question of how it might be tied to market forces – and what the implications will be – has taken a turn. While plenty of folks have asked about what happens if DNA is stolen or misappropriated, and made arguments about patenting of DNA or its ownership, the emerging question for the next year might be what it would mean to have inadvertently handed over DNA to a company that then puts that DNA – effectively – into the hands of organizations whose guardrails are basically non-existent. That’s pretty much what is going to keep me up at night for quite some time. Will it mean that there is an influence on who is born, or eugenics more generally? Let’s just say that the more products appear to provide for individuals to make choices about whom they would like to parent, the more dangerous things become (in our world where there’s basically no regulation on use of this data).
Glenn E. McGee Ph.D.
Ethics & Emerging Technology
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