Steministas
dna sequencing
Episodes
Tuesday Feb 11, 2020
What is a Genetics Dating App?
Tuesday Feb 11, 2020
Tuesday Feb 11, 2020
With DNA sequencing getting cheaper and cheaper more and more people are using services like 23andme and Ancestry.com to find out about their health and ancestry. What if there was a way to choose who you date based on your genetics?
Harvard scientist, George Church, is working on this idea in his app, Digid8 which will pair people up based on the likelihood of them not having a child with a genetic disease.
In this episode we do a refreshment on DNA sequencing, talk about the diseases this app is planning to screen for and get into the whole ethical situation and discuss if the term eugenics is appropriate for this idea of a genetics dating app.
SOURCES //
60 minutes article
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/harvard-geneticist-george-church-goal-to-protect-humans-from-viruses-genetic-diseases-and-aging-60-minutes-2019-12-08/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7d&linkId=78498957
Facts about the dating app
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614920/actual-facts-about-george-church-dna-dating-company-digid8/
FAQ questions that George answers
http://arep.med.harvard.edu/gmc/gen_faq.html
Church lab ethics policies
http://arep.med.harvard.edu/gmc/ELSI_gc.html
Points of view that the app is promoting eugenics
https://gizmodo.com/jeffrey-epstein-funded-geneticist-is-building-a-dating-1840315470
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43kkmq/a-genetic-dating-app-is-a-horrifying-thing-that-shouldnt-exist