Icelandic Genes

The movie Gattaca reminded me about the article: “For Sale: Iceland’s Genetic History” at

http://www.actionbioscience.org/genomic/hlodan.html

I have a friend who is of Icelandic heritage so I wrote him a note asking what he thought about the project.

It turns out that he supports the project because he thinks that if he could find out about potential health issues sooner then it would be a fair trade-off, even if health insurance companies discriminated against him as a result.

He questioned why they would sell the information to just one company but thought that it was justifiable if it was so that the company could make a profit based on the information. He’s going to forward the information to his sisters to see what they think. One is a poet and one is a ceramic engineer, so I’m interested in their various reactions to the story.

Once we start selling our genes to companies to analyze for health problems I think the next step is naturally that we will start analyzing to find "the best" of all genes and "the worst" of all genes (globally). This can easily progress to a quest for "the best of the best". I think this extends from the idea of a couple picking out the best in their combined genes to pass onto their children to the potential of choosing your mate based on his\her genes.

It also brings up the question, will armies of the future look beyond biological warfar to genetic warfare? - e.g. targeting susceptability of a race based on genetic predispositions?