

Genetic testing mix-up reignites regulation debate  - chwolfe
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/16/AR2010071606246_pf.html

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mechanical_fish
There's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem, as is usual with these things.

The problem with rare and expensive new technology, as genetic engineering was
until quite recently, is that it acquires totemic significance. Everyone reads
about it, but few people experience it directly, so it's easy to fantasize
about it and imbue it with all sorts of magical powers. One of my favorite
examples of this -- because it's just so ham-handed about it -- is a 1950 B
movie called _Radar Secret Service_ , as spoofed on _Mystery Science Theater
3000_ :

<http://mst3k.wikia.com/wiki/Radar_Secret_Service>

 _In this film universe radar is everywhere and can do anything - find
valuable mineral deposits deep underground, locate large schools of fish
underwater, etc, and all from thousands of miles away! Worship radar at the
church of your choice._

Of course, in 1950 radar was an amazing war-winning technology that only MIT
researchers and Air Force techs had any direct experience with. Sixty years
later, now that radar has come _and gone_ as a trendy police speed-measurement
technology (it's all about the LIDAR now) and every local weatherperson has
had a big Doppler radar display for twenty years, radar is kind of normal.

People's attitude toward genetics is such that if a woman is handed a genetic
profile of a black man and told it is hers she will _actually entertain
thoughts that she might be a black man_. People hear that they have the gene
"for" some rare disease ("p < 0.05") and then _contemplate suicide_ because
the Book of Destiny has foretold their certain doom. This attitude is no joke:
It really is an intense, potentially traumatic emotional experience to read a
genetic scan at this point. One is reminded of the cultures in which people
think that being photographed is to have one's soul stolen. Laugh at such
cultures at your peril, for in our own culture to read one's _genes_ is to
read one's soul, one's essence, and one's entire future.

These beliefs will fade eventually. I actually think the 23andme incident
might be helpful for public education. The biggest problem with genetic data
at this point is that people take it way, way too seriously. Turning it into a
laughingstock would be a positive development. Reading genes needs to feel
more like reading the _Daily Racing Form_ , or shopping for fashionable
prescription sunglasses, and less like touring a funeral home, scoring poorly
on the SAT, or attending an exorcism.

(Of course, as someone who almost certainly does _not_ harbor the gene for
Huntington's disease, this is easy for _me_ to say.)

~~~
PidGin128
><http://mst3k.wikia.com/wiki/Radar_Secret_Service>

> _In this film universe radar is everywhere and can do anything - find
> valuable mineral deposits deep underground, locate large schools of fish
> underwater, etc, and all from thousands of miles away! Worship radar at the
> church of your choice._

I don't know if radar was developed first, but since sonar accomplishes these
tasks I think it's fair to give it to them. Sound/Radio, pretty close.

Agree with people taking the results too seriously, especially with some labs
_not_ taking it seriously themselves by failing to handle samples carefully
and contaminating evidence.

I like your example regarding souls adhering to photographs, not least because
it's something I have chuckled to in my head before :\ .

Lastly, in respect to people's overreaction to results, I'm tempted to dismiss
it as amazing that we made it this far, and that our genes carry any
_meaningful\beneficial_ signal. This attitude is tempered by my fortunate lack
of fatal news, and a chance optimistic outlook [for today at least -- the mind
if fickle].

