Can genetic information catch a killer? And, cost you your privacy?
A recent essay published the New England Journal of Medicine explores the value and potential societal costs posed by access to private genetic information. In Sociogenetic Risks — Ancestry DNA Testing, Third-Party Identity, and Protection of Privacy, Dr. Thomas May explores the tension between the utility of genetic information and risks to privacy posed by individuals, including adoptees, seeking to identify genetic relatives, the limitations of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), and the effect on large scale population studies such as the National Institute of Health's All of Us initiative.
To learn more about these issues and other genetics topics, explore the Genetics Journal Club and Himmelfarb Library‘s resources including:
- May T. Sociogenetic Risks - Ancestry DNA Testing, Third-Party Identity, and Protection of Privacy. N Engl J Med. 2018 Jun 20. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp1805870. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 29924688.
- Beamer LC. Ethics and Genetics: Examining a Crossroads in Nursing Through a Case Study . Clin J Oncol Nurs. 2017 Dec 1;21(6):730-737. doi: 10.1188/17.CJON.730-737. PubMed PMID: 29149121.
- Molnár-Gábor F, Lueck R, Yakneen S, Korbel JO. Computing patient data in the cloud: practical and legal considerations for genetics and genomics research in Europe and internationally. Genome Med. 2017 Jun 20;9(1):58. doi: 10.1186/s13073-017-0449-6. Review. PubMed PMID: 28633659; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5477758.
