Reply to: How much would you pay to read your genome?

[DaveB]

Hmm don't think I'd be interested, what if it said I had a predisposition to some really rather unpleasant disease, would that mean I'm bound to get it? Would I spend the rest of my life waiting for it?
I remember seeing the documentary on Terry Pratchet and he was at one point with a doctor and his PA asked the Dr how long Terry had before his Alzheimers took him over. Terry shouted out "Don't answer that" and the Dr didn't. I think sometimes you can know too much.
As for knowing my ancestral race, I'm blonde and pale - so I'm guessing there may be a some viking in me genes

Lucky Bugger

[norrahe]

It would save you from having to go on the Jeremy Kyle Show?

[Zippy]

It would save you from having to go on the Jeremy Kyle Show?

[Pogle]

But what if you could take remedial action against your weak points, such as finding out that a daily vitamin D pill, or avoiding chocolate or something, would benefit you more than most?

Now, you see that's where it all falls down for me

[RichardCranium]

But what if taking remedial action against your weak points, such as avoiding chocolate, would benefit you more than most?

You are not just doing a poor job of selling this, you're putting us off!

[OwlHoot]

Perhaps I would if I was approaching fatherhood but not now, I woudn't really want to know that I might be in line for dementia at 60 or whatever.

What will be will be.

But what if you could take remedial action against your weak points, such as finding out that a daily vitamin D pill, or avoiding chocolate or something, would benefit you more than most?

[threaded]

I think the lowering cost and ease of DNA tests is a bit of a worry.

In pre-DNA days it was common for 30% of children not to be fathered by the chaps on the birth certificate.

With DNA testing this is rapidly dropping, leading to increases in childless families, and families with multiple disabled children, etc.

There are many such adverse effects due to narrowing of the spread of DNA across a population, and they're only slowly coming to light.

What happens if there are disastrous effects that only becomes apparent after several generations, n.b. the Spartans, the Roman Patricians, and European Royal families...

[RichardCranium]

What would make me pay?

You need to get your hands on the DNA of two or three celebrities (e.g. Chris Eubanks and Gazza and Meera Syal) and some brainiacs (e.g. Einstein and Stephen Hawking) and some long dead people (there must be some tissue available e.g. Tutankhamun, a 'bog body' and a dead king or two). I want at least one murderer in there too.

Also, include the DNA for a chimpanzee, a dog and a banana.

Then compare my DNA with theirs and include it in the report.

I want a posh certificate with a shiny border, my name in posh writing and %age similarity between me and those other people.

Richard Cranium

Your DNA matches that of:

Gazza 99.997%
Meera Syal 99.996%
Chris Eubanks 99.995%
etc.
Bubbles 98.412%
Fido 97.613%
A banana 96.312%

Then I want a poncy report, as long as possible, giving me lots of statistics about every disease you have data on. Include in that the diseases still being researched.

Plus a couple of pages with pictures on human migration and my DNA's probable travels in that. In shiny ink too, not off a deskjet.

Bung all that in a nice folder.

As for the DVD, just put The Great Escape on it but rename the file Your-Very-Own-DNA.DAT and print my name on the CD.

I'd pay £125 for that as a gift for someone else.

BUT ... and here's the clever bit ... for £25 a year subscription, you continue to send me, every year, updates on the medical analysis as information becomes available plus a quarterly newsletter on DNA analysis progress, health matters (and adverts for insurance, medical devices and all that usual tulip). For a further £75 a year, you will send me email alerts on medical stats updates as soon as the research is done. <--- this last paragraph will make someone stupid rich.

[Pogle]

Sequence all your nuclear and mitochondrial DNA, and have the result posted back to you as a large ZIP file on a DVD.

In practice, the results might also include a summary of your likely physical and mental strengths and weaknesses (as far as these can be assessed from DNA at present) and your ancestral race(s) also evident from the DNA.

Hmm don't think I'd be interested, what if it said I had a predisposition to some really rather unpleasant disease, would that mean I'm bound to get it? Would I spend the rest of my life waiting for it?
I remember seeing the documentary on Terry Pratchet and he was at one point with a doctor and his PA asked the Dr how long Terry had before his Alzheimers took him over. Terry shouted out "Don't answer that" and the Dr didn't. I think sometimes you can know too much.
As for knowing my ancestral race, I'm blonde and pale - so I'm guessing there may be a some viking in me genes

[scooterscot]

Nothing; it has no value to me whatsoever.

However, it may have value to others that would wish to discriminate against me such as insurance companies. So I would be more interested in preventing it being read.

I'm already discriminated for having a lazy eye. Going to watch the 3D movie Avatar, my head was splitting, eyes severely strained afterwards. yuck.

I dread when all movies are in 3D.

Let alone having my DNA strengths and weaknesses plucked out so - it's wrong and £'s cannot be used to justify it's right.

[TimberWolf]

Much of it is the same as everyone else's and other life.

[RichardCranium]

Sequence all your nuclear and mitochondrial DNA, and have the result posted back to you as a large ZIP file on a DVD.

The resulting 6 gigabit file (if that's the right size) would be worthless to me as it is meaningless. I could write a program to produce one from random numbers and sell that; how would the punters be any the wiser?

In practice, the results might also include a summary of your likely physical and mental strengths and weaknesses (as far as these can be assessed from DNA at present) and your ancestral race(s) also evident from the DNA.

I can get most of that by asking questions of my parents' and grandparents' health, and by looking at myself in the mirror.


When we were on holiday on Jersey some years ago, at Jersey Goldsmiths I paid something like £5 for the missus to stand on their scales and get an A4 printout of "The Worth Of Your Weight In Gold". It was on nice heavy paper with a gilt border. It was a fun, amusing and mildly interesting ("Really? Is that all? Get some pies down your neck, girl") thing to do and so worth a few quid.

Plenty of people will spend hundreds of hours and hundreds of £ researching their past 8 generations. But with that comes the human component: how did my ancestors make a living? Where did they migrate?


You're going to need to big up the marketing on this genome product an awful lot before I'll buy. It is neither functional, nor beautiful and, therefore, does not belong in my home.

[OwlHoot]

What does 'read your genome' mean in this context?

Sequence all your nuclear and mitochondrial DNA, and have the result posted back to you as a large ZIP file on a DVD.

In practice, the results might also include a summary of your likely physical and mental strengths and weaknesses (as far as these can be assessed from DNA at present) and your ancestral race(s) also evident from the DNA.

[RichardCranium]

What does 'read your genome' mean in this context?

[OwlHoot]

Nothing; it has no value to me whatsoever.

However, it may have value to others that would wish to discriminate against me such as insurance companies. So I would be more interested in preventing it being read.

Hmm, good point.

Ok, let's assume this is anonymous, so there's no way an insurance company can get their grubby mitts on the results or even have any knowledge this exercise was done.