WASHINGTON — Personalized DNA tests that claim to predict a person's likelihood of developing diseases are misleading and offer little or no useful information ,U.S. government investigators stated.
Government Accountability Office did a undercover investigation and found that four genetic testing companies delivered contradictory predictions for the same person's DNA. Investigators also found that the test results often contradicted patients' actual medical histories.
The GAO reported their findings at a congressional hearing to scrutinize companies that mass-market personalized DNA tests.
Some people commented on this saying:
"Problem is, the tests are not advertised as inconclusive. They are sold as conclusive scientific tests. if the companies selling the tests stated that the reported results are pretty much random, who would pay for them? You may be against government regulation in anything, but a lot of us want government to investigate things which we do not have the expertise or information to evaluate for ourselves."_Unknown
"About governmental regulation, do not forget that what keeps our society intact for as long as it has been is BALANCE. Too much of something is bad, as is too little. Reality has a way of smacking people upside the head, but often enough that comes only after a lot of damage has been done to a lot of people and while the consequences may be severe to the party spreading bad karma about, they may be able to mitigate them easily enough and it does nothing for the people who have been wrongly injured.
Remember the 'ounce of prevention' saying? If you are operating a business where you're in a position to really hurt a bunch of folks if you louse up or get too greedy, some government oversight is what will usually remove most temptation to cross over to the dark side. No, you don't want 'Big Brother' watching everything you do, but having to look good for an inspector or in case of an investigation does keep a lot of companies whose doors are otherwise closed to the public from getting too sloppy in their food preparation, product design and manufacturing, etc.?"
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