by Lori Andrews

With TIME Magazine dubbing the 23andme personalized genome scan the “2008 Invention of the Year,” you might be tempted to give your loved one his or her genetic profile for the holidays.  After all, what says I love you more than letting that special someone peek inside their own genome?  Or what about setting aside your usual New Years Eve revelry and sponsoring a spit party—where your guests can get an on-the-spot genetic tests?

The initial idea for a genetic profile as a gift did not originate with an entrepreneur or scientist, but with an artist. When the wife of a patron of arts asked Iñigo Manglano Ovalle to create a surprise portrait of her husband for his birthday, Ovalle conspired with the patron’s barber to pluck some hair from the man’s head and test it genetically.  Ovalle’s painted bands, based on the test results, looked like the forensic profiles used at the time in law enforcement and revealed no health information.  But the testing techniques used to produce the $399 genome scan offered by 23andme, as well as the tests offered by its competitors deCODE Genetics and Navigenics, do reveal potential future conditions including blindness, cancer, and risks of mental illness.

While a fascinating idea at first, the personalized genome might end up a more reviled gift than the fruitcake.  Not all currently-healthy people do well with learning that they have a higher-than-average risk of suffering from a future cancer or a devastating, untreatable neurological disorder.  When I was doing research for my book, Future Perfect: Confronting Decisions About Genetics, I learned that some women with mutations in their breast cancer gene say, “I feel like I have a time bomb ticking away inside me.”  And rather than giving up smoking, people who learn that have a genetic mutation linked to lung cancer actually become so nervous they light up. 

And, since many of the testing companies allow submissions through the mail, there’s nothing to stop, say, a woman’s ex-husband from taking a bit of her saliva off a glass, submitting it to a testing company under a fake name, and using health information about her to convince a judge that she might die young and so he should get custody of the kids.  Already, a South Carolina judge expressed a willingness to use genetic testing results in a custody decision.  And, although some national and state legislation protects people against genetic discrimination in health insurance and employment, only 10 states (Alaska, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Vermont) have laws that say genetic testing cannot be undertaken without the individual’s consent. 

So, my Secret Santa, do me a favor.  Let me keep my genome secret.