Over the past few years I’ve seen
more and more commercial ads for something called DNA testing. Deoxyribonucleic acid, otherwise known as
DNA, is the substance that holds genetic information.
That information includes our
race, sex, eye color, hair color and texture, and physiologies such as height,
weight, and even propensities to develop diseases and maladies.
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| DNA results |
DNA kits were initially sold to
identify biological parents of children born to mothers and fathers of
questionable chastity. They popped up on
smarmy television programs over the years and have finally made their way into
the average person’s home.
The companies vending these
simple identification methods are now telling the prospective consumers this
will help discover ancestry via testing.
For example, theoretically you
would get tested to determine what information your genes possessed. Those data would be compared to data
submitted by other DNA testees. Eventually,
an overlap in genetic material would be found, which would be able to determine
country of ancestry.
While seemingly innocuous, this
information, besides recognizing long-diluted races of peoples and families,
can suggest possible links to familial maladies. Angelina Jolie discovered a possible link in
her genes to breast cancer and subsequently had a double mastectomy performed
as a proactive means to avoid future issues.
Other people are learning their
heritage was from Sub-Saharan Africa, only to have been watered down into
believing their background as Caucasian.
Even a current Democratic presidential candidate, Elizabeth Warren,
touted herself as an American Indian, allegedly receiving financial and other
beneficial treatment as a government-approved minority.
Subsequent DNA testing indicated
Smokey the Cat has more American Indian blood than Ms. Warren. Alas.
Law enforcement has been using
DNA as a means to both positively connect and rule out evidence to individuals,
cementing convictions that are usually unquestionable in court.
As you can see, such innovation
can be bittersweet.
I personally believe this
“private” information, collected and stored by testing entities, will be
subject to disclosure to health and life insurance companies.
Both those insurers have a vested
interest in knowing if someone has a propensity to develop heart problems,
diabetes, or cancer. These purveyors of
a means of legalized gambling, of sorts, will certainly try to charge an
insured person more if they are more susceptible to wind-up with a costly,
catastrophic ailment for which they are financially responsible.
So it was with this in mind that
I began paying more attention to those genetic testing ads. It didn’t take long for them to gravitate
from selling these tests in order to identify long-lost relatives, to discovering
which genes you have affecting your daily life.
They name some scientific
identifiers for the gene causing your leg to twitch, or the gene that makes you
light-sensitive, or one which can cause you to have a cleft pallet.
But I feel such information can
be intrusive – much like offering your fingerprints to the FBI – to see if you
are unidentified as a suspect in any past crimes.
So it was at this point I began
mentally perusing my immediate family’s heritage and history.
Breaking things down by parents,
my Mother was terrible at math and spelling; my Father excelled at math and
fractions, but was okay at spelling.
My sister was a book-learner who
had an eidetic memory, but had difficulty applying what she saw and read;
practicality was absent.
I, on the other hand, also have
an eidetic memory, but am poor at spelling.
With words that should be spelled
phonetically, you can clearly see how I could misspell “foneticly.”
“Eidetic” is another word that seems
to be spelled incorrectly; “idetic” would be more appropriate.
So to all the nuns in elementary
school, I apologize, but my inability to spell was not my problem or that of
the spelling books.
It’s evident I got the bad
spelling gene. I confess.
