CGS-authored
When UC Berkeley changed its controversial DNA-testing program under pressure earlier this month so that incoming students would no longer receive personalized genetic results, Elizabeth Noah considered asking for her sample back.
Noah was one of the more than 5,000 transfer and freshmen students who had received DNA cheek swab kits from the university to test three common genetic variants as part of the College of Letters and Sciences' fall orientation program on personalized medicine. More than 700 students, including Noah, sent back samples.
But a ruling by the California Department of Public Health this month persuaded Berkeley scientists to abandon their plans to provide individual student results. Instead, they will release the information as a group.
The decision opens a set of issues ranging from what responsibility the university has to the students who agreed to participate in what is now a different program, to what impact the state's decision will have on future projects to, ultimately, who has control over one's genetic information.
"Everyone should be given the opportunity to opt out because I think the game has...