Hutch

Have to say this sounds like an amazing product. For your $400USD you get a kit from which they genotype your DNA and from that:I'm thinking of buying one for my missus for Xmas. (Yes, they ship to Oz)

https://www.23andme.com/

Dorothy

For a site that claims to detect over 90 diseases, it's strange that they left out Huntington's Chorea, which is one of the diseases that genetic testing is easily able to identify.

asher

you need counselling before that test though

Dorothy

You do for a lot of the other tests on that list.

MTPockets

Hi mate. Looks interesting but from a quick skim read…

“Your saliva, once submitted to and analyzed by us, becomes our property.”

“You understand that your genetic and other contributed personal information will be stored in 23andMe research databases…”.

“You have the right to delete your genetic information from our systems. Within thirty (30) days of receiving your written request, we will delete your account, and your information will not be included in any future research, including future research by other organizations. Any research conducted prior to the end of the thirty (30) day period following receipt of your request will not be altered or halted”

“23andMe may enter into partnerships with other investigators and organizations—non-profit and/or commercial…may grant researchers associated with partner organizations access to our database of genetic and other contributed personal information…Once information is shared with research partners, we cannot guarantee that it will be destroyed upon request.”

“Even if we are legally compelled to provide information, we will attempt to notify you before providing your information to external parties unless prohibited by law”

The only way they could notify you is if you supplied full contact details, creating a chain of association between you and your genome somewhere in their system. And the fact there seems to be no assurance that you could ever have all information and sample destroyed implies they could keep testing ad infinitum as genetic research develops over time - maybe a good thing, maybe not.

I’m not trying to be negative and it could be a great positive, but if I were you I’d have a good read through the (many) pages of small print especially before placing a lot of trust in a company operating in another legal jurisdiction in particular. Is it funded by a larger biotech firm? Are its intentions purely altruistic? Nobody knows how legislation here nor there may change in the future (e.g. life insurance disclosure, intelligence screening), but there is widespread acknowledgement that the use of genetic discrimination could become a growing issue.

It could certainly be information worth knowing. But quite apart from the issue of learning information about yourself that you did not anticipate, you could also make a decision that has a profound long-term impact on not just yourself but your children and family members – those of today and tomorrow. As somebody else pointed out, counselling before a decision like that is a good idea.