Tuesday Feb 11, 2020

What is a Genetics Dating App?

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

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