'Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
Or a yawing hole in a battered head
And the scuppers clogged with rotting red
And there they lay I damn me eyes
All lookouts clapped on Paradise
All souls bound just contrarywise, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Seeing as how I'm biochemical train wreck, I think they could learn a lot from my sample. I think this would be really cool and fun to do, but only if it doesn't involve needles. NO NEEDLES.
This is awesome. The opportunity to be part of a project that could spawn God only knows how many medical advances and improvements for the entire human race is amazing. How great would it be if my data happened to be the catalyst that made something click in some researcher's head, and he then came up with a cure for cancer? Or if researchers 4 centuries in the future are going over ancient historical data and find the key to solving some problem they're dealing with then? Hell, maybe I could wake up in the year 4612 as a clone and get to see the future. I'm okay with it being possible for someone to dig enough information out of the file to identify me. I don't particularly want my name stamped on it, but even that wouldn't bother me all that much. As much as I like to believe that I'm the center of the universe, I'm just not that special. No one is going to care enough about little old me to track me down specifically and cause trouble.
Theoretically, if an insurance company puzzled out which genome was yours and determined that your genes made you at a higher risk of testicular cancer or something, they could decide not to cover you or to charge you double the going rate. An employer could decide not to hire you perhaps. Or maybe you'd find out something about your ancestry you didn't want to know, like that your father isn't really your father, or that you have no Irish heritage despite your grandfather being full Irish.
'Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
Or a yawing hole in a battered head
And the scuppers clogged with rotting red
And there they lay I damn me eyes
All lookouts clapped on Paradise
All souls bound just contrarywise, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
I've been digging into the website, and they list out a few (unlikely, but still very possible) consequences. The most common problem would probably be that you could find out that your father isn't the one who contributed genes when you were created. You could find out that you have a genetic marker indicating a high likelihood of having a very unpleasant and totally incurable disease. You could have a false positive for some disease marker and spend a lot of time, money, and stress figuring that out. Some evil dude could pose as a researcher, get hold of cultures from the cells you send in, and leave them as DNA evidence at a crime, thus framing you. A life insurance company could figure out who you are and deny you coverage because of increased chances of developing X disease. Some researcher could clone you without your knowledge or consent, or combine your DNA with someone else's and make a biological child of yours.
I think the benefits would far outweigh the risks.
Hmm, we had a lecture about it past monday and I was joking like "Oh, I'd do that and paper my walls with it if it weren't too expensive." (Actually, it's quite awesome having it and the wallpaper thing was the joke part). It'd be quite awesome to have it done, as I like genetics.
Pokemon Y / Pokemon OR
Friendcode: 0791-2124-3938 (IGN: Michiel)
If they publicly share my genome, someone could clone me, then send the clone to kill me and take my place. then the clone might start doing all kinds of evil things, attempting global domination before my clone is killed and I'll go down in history as a monster!!!!
/BLIND PAAAANIIIIIIC!
'Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
Or a yawing hole in a battered head
And the scuppers clogged with rotting red
And there they lay I damn me eyes
All lookouts clapped on Paradise
All souls bound just contrarywise, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Honestly genetic screening and genome sequencing should become the norm for the next generation upon birth or maybe even in the womb.
The future of medicine is in indivdualized care as every person reacts differently to different medicines and sometimes even to the same diseases. Thus, having your own genome mapped means that you can be prescribed things that will not make you suffer worse symptoms than the disease to be cured.
"Looks like these specific genes are the culprit for tumor growth in this cancer patient; maybe if we can provide therapy for that gene we might be able to increase his survival because chemotherapy would be far too much risk for little reward".
Last edited by Flaks; 2012-11-21 at 07:52 PM.
Originally Posted by High Overlord Saurfangi7-6700 @2.8GHz | Nvidia GTX 960M | 16GB DDR4-2400MHz | 1 TB Toshiba SSD| Dell XPS 15
"I was a normal baby for 30 seconds, then ninjas stole my mamma" - Deadpool
"so what do we do?" "well jack, you stand there and say 'gee rocket raccoon I'm so glad you brought that Unfeasibly large cannon with you..' and i go like this BRAKKA BRAKKA BRAKKA" - Rocket Raccoon
FC: 3437-3046-3552
Dammit, they stole my idea! No but seriously, I was thinking about it last night. This doesn't sound that implausible. The evil dude doesn't even need to know the identity behind the DNA. Just pick a culture sample at random and there it is. I'll sue Hollywood if they steal my awesome plot!
I think I watched that documentary too... wasn't it one of those David Attenborough ones? Certainly not his best work :/
PS: you crack me up XD
My Gaming Setup | WoW Paladin (retired)
"This is not a dress. This is a sacred robe of the ancient psychedelic monks."
I read "I've signed up to have my gnome sequined" and I was like "oh interesting, sparkles!"
Ah Genome hacking, the possible threat of the future. I'd do it for scientific research though.