THE genetic make-up of a candidate in the next US presidential election could be exploited by an opponent to raise doubts about their health or personality. So say medical researcher and medical lawyer George Annas, both at Boston University.
Anyone who wants a sample of a candidate鈥檚 DNA could probably get it from coffee cups or cutlery that the person has used. Combine that with the fact that a well-funded campaign could now afford to pay for a whole-genome scan, and the divulging of a candidate鈥檚 genome becomes a genuine possibility, Green and Annas write in The New England Journal of Medicine (vol 359, p 2192).
Such an act is more likely to aid demagoguery than make reliable predictions, though: at present, little is known about the genetic roots of personality, while most genes associated with a disease only slightly bump up the risk of developing the condition. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not really very meaningful,鈥� says Green.
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