I generally agree that 23andMe was obviously going to end in something like this. The actual value was never in the "fun personal genetic testing" - it was alw

I generally agree that 23andMe was obviously going to end in something like this. The actual value was never in the "fun personal genetic testing" - it was always the aggregated population-wide DNA data. However, I do think a national "DNA database" would be interesting, if it could actually be made truly anonymous. I have no idea if that is possible, but assuming it is - I think there would be massive benefit for this data to be available to public (and private) researchers for the cost of simple maintenance and upkeep of the database. Who knows what great discoveries could be made in the future with this data available at the fingertips of many. However, I don't know enough on the subject to understand the evil potential with a database that can by truly anonymous. Maybe it enables making a new cancer vaccine for the most common type of cancer. Maybe it enables creating a virus that is lethal after exactly 28 days to only a certain segment of the population carrying a specific gene. This bit is certainly what gives me huge pause. I also suspect truly anonymizing such a database would be extremely difficult to nigh-impossible. That all said, while my DNA is in government databases against my will (many mothers signed up for those "get your kid back if kidnapped" law enforcement drives in the 80's and 90's) I will never willingly submit a sample to such a service unless I have exceedingly clear control of all my data and assurances it will be destroyed after whatever specific results I need come back.