Wired and the New York Times both have interesting articles about the launch of 23AndMe, a new startup that will sequence much of your genome for $1000. Here's an excerpt from Wired:
....This winter marks the birth of a new industry: Companies will take a sample of your DNA, scan it, and tell you about your genetic future, as well as your ancestral past. A much-anticipated Silicon Valley startup called 23andMe offers a thorough tour of your genealogy, tracing your DNA back through the eons. Sign up members of your family and you can track generations of inheritance for traits like athletic endurance or bitter-taste blindness. The company will also tell you which diseases and conditions are associated with your genes — from colorectal cancer to lactose intolerance — giving you the ability to take preventive action. A second company, called Navigenics, focuses on matching your genes to current medical research, calculating your genetic risk for a range of diseases....
In the genomic age, we will no longer have the problem of not knowing, but we will face the burden of whether we want to know in the first place. We'll learn what might be best for us in life and then have to reckon with the risk and perhaps the guilt of not acting on that knowledge.
This new age of genomics comes with great opportunity — but also great quandaries. In the genomic age, we will no longer have the problem of not knowing, but we will face the burden of whether we want to know in the first place. We'll learn what might be best for us in life and then have to reckon with the risk and perhaps the guilt of not acting on that knowledge. We will, counterintuitively, face even more pressure to conduct our lives carefully, strictly, and cautiously; we'll practice the art of predictive diagnosis and receive a demanding roster of things to avoid, things to do, and treatments to receive — long before there's any physical evidence of disease. And, yes, we will know whether our children are predisposed to certain traits or talents — athletics or music or languages — and encourage them to pursue certain paths. In short, life will become a little more like a game of strategy, where we're always playing the percentages, trying to optimize our outcomes....
The New York Times article, My Genome, Myself: Seeking Clues in DNA by Amy Harmon, is a more personal reflection on the ups and downs of obtaining access to your genetic risks and predispositions.