When a spit test leads to existential whiplash
(MOLLY FERGUSON/STAT)
Leonard Kim spent three decades believing he was 100% Korean, right up until a 23andMe DNA test told him was nearly half Japanese. It took months of soul-searching for Kim to accept his new identity. But all that work came unglued earlier this month with a chance visit to the company’s website, one that revealed he was suddenly fully Korean.
“It’s like, OK, so what’s my real identity?” Kim said.
His experience is not unique. Companies like 23andMe are upfront about the fact that their ancestry results are living documents, updated as more data genetic becomes available. And because of longstanding racial imbalances in genomics, those updates can drastically alter results for customers of color.
But the phenomenon underlines a thorny issue in the world of consumer genetic tests: DNA is science, but ethnicity is a cultural construct, and blurring lines between the two can invite trouble.
Read more.
“It’s like, OK, so what’s my real identity?” Kim said.
His experience is not unique. Companies like 23andMe are upfront about the fact that their ancestry results are living documents, updated as more data genetic becomes available. And because of longstanding racial imbalances in genomics, those updates can drastically alter results for customers of color.
But the phenomenon underlines a thorny issue in the world of consumer genetic tests: DNA is science, but ethnicity is a cultural construct, and blurring lines between the two can invite trouble.
Read more.
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