5 ms·
Oh come on, don't straw man the actual issues. Nobody is worried about GSK getting rich, but are worried about actual issues like insurance discrimination, loss
by ryanisnan 8y ago
Oh come on, don't straw man the actual issues. Nobody is worried about GSK getting rich, but are worried about actual issues like insurance discrimination, loss of privacy, loss of control, etc.
I think few people would argue against the benefits of genetic testing, but just because it's a great thing doesn't mean that being complacent around adjacent shady business transactions is the right approach.
You can be for it, but also for privacy, protection against insurance discrimination, etc. at the same time.
- Karunamon 8y agoInsurance discrimination is explicitly prohibited by law, and your genetic makeup is about the least private and controllable thing about you since you leave bits of it everywhere you go whether you want to or not.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoIf I cared about privacy I wouldn’t have had 23andme and the Personal Genome Project do my genotyping. While it may affect me negatively in the future, the net positive (in aggregate with all participants) will exceed that negative value. I’m dead in the long run regardless, and would rather find every way I can be impactful with the time I have left, even in these small ways.
- whatshisface 8y agoHave you considered the impact on your relatives and descendants? They may care more about their privacy than you care about yours, and when you get sequenced they don't have a choice.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoI have considered the ethical issues. Not my problem, it’s my DNA.
- whatshisface 8y agoThe problem is, it's also theirs. Using the insurance example, even if you live in a country with socialized healthcare someone down or across the line from you may not. Indeed, you would be putting them at risk for all of the bad things to do with DNA that will be or were invented from fifty years ago until the computers forget your genome, without their consent, and unless they received a copy of your results without their benefit!
- toomuchtodo 8y agoIt’s a legitimate concern that requires constant vigilance of an educated and engaged electorate. Otherwise we’ll end up paralyzed with anxiety of what if vs progress.
- ryanisnan 8y agoThe two things should not be mutually exclusive (privacy and technological advancement). Why do you lay over and just accept that it has to be that way?
- toomuchtodo 8y agoBecause I don’t feel my genome data needs to be private, or that there is value in keeping it private.