23andMe is just one of the many companies that use a
consumers DNA to report to them their ancestry and heritage. The above picture is the device a consumer spits in and sends away to the company. Now the company
wants to use the DNA in order to provide consumers with do-it-yourself
diagnostic testing. At first, this service was stopped by the FDA in 2013
because they feared consumers would use the information to make real life
medical decisions. The FDA finally allowed 23andMe to tell consumers “whether
they possess genetic mutations (Maxmen, 2017)” that are known to cause certain
medical conditions. Some of the conditions include Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s,
coeliac and thrombophilia. The downsides of this service include consumers
reading these results without the help of a genetic counselor or doctor.
This is very interesting, but I think they should have left this off the market like they decided previously. There are already too many hypochondriacs out there and people that try to self diagnose themselves. This test, giving them information of what disease/medical condition they have cannot be good for their mental health. The worst part about this, is that they do not have a doctor or genetic counselor telling them these things are true and what to do about it.
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