Tuesday, June 17, 2008

California Tries to Crack Down on DNA Testing

According to a report on Slashdot today, "California's Department of Public Health has sent cease-and-desist notices to 13 companies that market genetic testing directly to consumers. (We discussed these services when they launched.) Allegedly, under state law, California residents must submit a doctor's order tDNAladdero have a genetic test run. It will be interesting to see if the government will actually succeed in putting the genetic genie back in the bottle, given that all you need for testing is a few drops of saliva. The effort closely resembles US government attempts to block export of strong encryption product back in 90s."

Thomas Goetz, has written lively argument against the California ruling for Wired.com.   Read it here.

The DNA testing genie associated with family history research is indeed out of the bottle.   

If I remember correctly, Will Rogers used to tell the Navy how to bring the German subs to the surface during World War II:  "Just heat the oceans and they'll surface."   He went on to say, "I'm like the government, I just make these statements, I don't tell you how to implement them."

I say, "Good Luck California".  You'll have better luck finding enough snow to build a snow fort in Palm Springs in mid-July, than you will in enforcing this stance.

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