From a Fledgling Genetic Science, a Murky Market for Prediction

October 30, 2023

(Undark) – The companies commercializing these techniques have largely escaped regulatory scrutiny, despite doubts about the health benefits their analyses can provide and worries about the risks they could pose to customers, health care systems, and society at large. The commercial push has created tension between academic researchers who toil to uncover new genetic associations, and the entrepreneurs who repurpose the results for profit.

Some ethicists also express a darker anxiety: a worry that companies will be tempted to test the blurry line that separates genetic prediction of disease risk from attempts to divine more complex traits laden with social stigmas. They portray it as a slippery slope that could lead to new modes of discrimination and bias. (Read More)