Even as a revolutionary gene-editing technique has revealed the scope for correcting genetic defects, some uneasy trends have emerged recently, viz.,interpreting DNA from a commercial angle and manipulating its code without accountability. These trends hold lessons to Indian policy-makers, when large-scale genome analysis by tech giants like Google starts giving out user-friendly results in the near future.
It is common to see people in the U. S. spitting into a test tube and mailing the saliva to a company called 23andMe, a DNA test provider for analysis of their genetic code. The spit is analysed to detect varying traits controlled by genes in individuals (see Box).
For $99, a customer can go in for an ancestry test, and the company would send data on his or her family origins to some extent. For a higher fee ($199), one can opt for a Health and Ancestry test, which would inform the customer, if he or she has any....
