Strand of worms

Online DNA testing may reveal more than we bargained for and be used against us in far-reaching ways, warns NOEL O'HARE. It could also save our lives.

- NOEL O'HARE

A few months ago, out of idle curiosity, I filled a tube with saliva and sent it off to Ancestry.com. It wasn’t the best decision I’ve made in my life, but fortunately, I don’t have a whole life to regret it.

At the time, it looked like a bargain. Over the past couple of decades, the price has dropped about $1000 to less than $100 today. No wonder, then, that consumer DNA testing has skyrocketed and is now an $8 billion industry. It’s promoted as an easy and fun way to find relatives or uncover ethnic origins. Discovering you are, for example, 20% Italian is a fun fact to share with friends on Facebook or over drinks.

But this is only scraping the surface of the technology. DNA therapies open the door for personalised medical measures to both prevent and cure disease. DNA analysis has the potential to give us real insight into our traits and behaviours. The pious entreaties of philosophers down the ages “to know thyself” takes on new meaning. But we’re not there yet. And where we are now can sometimes be scary and threatening.

Most people would be reluctant to shed their clothes in public, but nudity is nothing compared to how they expose themselves by handing over their DNA. Personal privacy is ripped to shreds and family secrets laid bare. Sperm donor conceptions, infidelities, adoptions and even crimes can no longer be covered up. DNA testing means it’s no longer possible to bury the past. That drunken one-night stand, workplace romance or holiday fling decades ago could turn out to be unfinished business that involves a back demand for child support. It takes only one relative to upload DNA to a genealogy site to make it possible to trace an individual.