Amazing work is being done by the scientific and medical communities, including by experts at the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy. Every time I read a story like this one, I conclude science is ahead of ethics and morality. Would you want to know what your DNA indicates is your medical future? And who should — and shouldn’t — have access to this information? We’ll have to ask that question of the 14 people from Durham and Duke who are participating in Duke’s study.
Meantime, over at UNC Chapel Hill last week, grad students and postdoctoral fellows were part of DNA Day. The group fanned out to North Carolina high schools to discuss a variety of DNA related topics in an effort to encourage students to pursue careers in science. Ethics of DNA research was among the issues discussed.
