Putting 500k People's DNA Online

Re:Putting 500k People's DNA Online by patall on Saturday February 10, 2018 @04:03PM (#16349575)

But thats not the point. The question is whether you can make data public that, while it belongs to you, also belongs (partially) to other people (your siblings, parents, unborn children ...) who might not want to have their genetic data public. Sure, there is may be no risk to you and a data repository like the one described contains an enourmous value for society in the form of biomedical data but that does not mean you have to give it to everyone without knowing their intention. Especially if they end up knowing something about you that you don't.

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Re:Putting 500k People's DNA Online by Real_S on Saturday February 10, 2018 @04:47PM (#16349793)

This is an incredibly important point!

Openly sharing your genetic information makes both you AND your relatives more vulnerable, with vulnerability decreasing as relatedness decreases. It also reveals potentially sensitive information about family traits.

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Re:Putting 500k People's DNA Online by jhbadger on Sunday February 11, 2018 @11:18AM (#16353269)

That's one (rather selfish) way of thinking about it. Another way of thinking about it is that you (and everybody else) is better off if more genomic data is available for research. It's worth remembering that genomicists like George Church and Craig Venter have made their genomes publically available for all to access.

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Re:Putting 500k People's DNA Online by PunchTornado on Saturday February 10, 2018 @05:14PM (#16349948)

I think i have the right to do anything i want with my genome, including making it public. It's my genome ffs, it's me. If i don't have this right with my genome then I don't have any rights at all.

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Re:Putting 500k People's DNA Online by Ao7bei3s on Saturday February 10, 2018 @06:11PM (#16350181)

Except it really isn't entirely your own genome. You share most of it with your relatives, and to lesser extents, the rest of us and all other beings. Since it's a shared resource, they should have a say.

Can you follow the argument if we flip it around? Your right to do anything you want should include not making it public. Others publishing "theirs" would mean publishing yours, whether you want it or not.

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Re:Putting 500k People's DNA Online by PunchTornado on Sunday February 11, 2018 @08:04AM (#16352511)

It is entirely my genome.

Over 99.9% of the genome is identical to every human being. And that genome is made public (the reference genome) and updated regularly as we understand more about the DNA.

Even identical twins don't have the same DNA. So it's not like I make public another person's DNA.

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Re:Putting 500k People's DNA Online by patall on Sunday February 11, 2018 @05:28AM (#16352092)

Sorry but no, just because something is yours it does not mean you can do with it whatever you want (I understand that this is a totally non-libertarian view). If you find uranium on your plot of land, you also cannot sell it to whoever you want. And the human genome is similarly seen as something protected, just look at how CRISPR experiments on human embryos are highly controversial.

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Re:Putting 500k People's DNA Online by bpicolo on Sunday February 11, 2018 @02:47PM (#16354368)

> And the human genome is similarly seen as something protected

It's not, I can publish/sell/do whatever I want with any of my genomic data I have desire to

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Re:Putting 500k People's DNA Online by akvadrako on Saturday February 10, 2018 @05:59PM (#16350129)

Of course - this is total bullshit - trying to tell people what they can do with their own dna.

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