The Personal Genome Project

Comments

• Insurance discrimination Guest (Chris Miller) on 01/20/2006 at 12:00 AM

  Posts: 1

  Why is insurance discrimination such a big deal?  If I sell insurance, I want to identify the good risks and avoid the poor ones (or offer them an increased rate to cover the increased risk).  At present, health or life insurers ask prospects about the health of their parents - this is a (crude) form of genetic 'discrimination'.  If genetic information is available to the insured but not the insurer, there's a danger that all the poor risks will rush to take out life or health insurance and companies will be forced to increase their rates accordingly. Rate this comment: (Reply)

  • 	RE:Insurance Discrimmination Guest (Steve) on 01/20/2006 at 12:00 AM
    Posts: 1	So, if I tell the agent that I am adopted, I may get a better rate than if I own up to having cancerous parents? Can I just disown and disavow any knowledge of my parents for the discount? Rate this comment: (Reply)

    • 	RE: Insurance discrimination Guest (Chris Miller) on 01/23/2006 at 12:00 AM
      Posts: 1	You can fib as much as you wish - but the insurer may decide not to pay a claim if they can prove that you were fibbing! Rate this comment: (Reply)

      • Re: RE: Insurance discrimination Sandman157 on 09/09/2007 at 7:46 PM

        Posts: 1

        I don't think you guys get it - the insurance company isn't going to ask you any questions, except maybe "Roght or left arm?" as they sample your blood. It doesn't matter how many fibs you tell - if you have the gene, then you have it. Now, what actions they can take on the basis of this knowledge - that's what the debate is about. But the point that defeective persons will quickly take out insurance is well made. Women who had themselves tested for breast cancer risk genes and got a positive result (i.e. - they had the cancer gene) were very likely to go quickly and take out large life insurance policies - from companies who were not informed of the recent test results. It may sound like a little guy getting the jump on a big corporation, but it will bring down the whole apple cart if it's allowed to continue. Sandman Rate this comment: (Reply)

  • Personal Genome Project Guest (Pete) on 01/21/2006 at 12:00 AM

    Posts: 1

    Dr. Church's recent paper (Science. 2005 309:1728-32)is a technical coup de grace. But a  personal human genome sequence based solely on this technology will most likely not be sufficiently accurate.  In light of recent studies showing very high frequencies of copy number length polymorphisms (see Jan. '06 Nat Genet.) that will confound the sequencing and fundamental genome assembly and annotation errors (Cytogenet Genome Res. 2006;112:1-5), any attempt to directly relate the sequence(s) from an individual to their pathogenicity would be medically irresponsible. A combination of technologies will be needed. Rate this comment: (Reply)

• 	Privacy HA! Guest (Steve) on 01/20/2006 at 12:00 AM
  Posts: 1	If it is part of your medical record, any cop any time can just waltz in and ask for a copy. This needs to be personally controllable. There needs to be severe punishments for researcher that lose control of the data. Rate this comment: (Reply)

• 	The Personal Genome Project Guest (Aaron Brill) on 01/20/2006 at 12:00 AM
  Posts: 1	Very important. Good approach. Good luck. Vanderbilt is launching a DNA database project with anonymyzation and linking to medical records within the institution. It will be interesting to see how different approaches merge. Rate this comment: (Reply)

• 	Possible volunteers: Me and who else? Guest (Owen N. Martinez-Sandin) on 01/21/2006 at 12:00 AM
  Posts: 1	I am fully health-insured through Medicare and Humana.  Being comparatively healthy, although 77, there are no difficulties in having my genome become public, if it con contribute to humanity.  There may be a large number of others, similarly available.  Let us know how we can help. Sincerely,  Owen    Rate this comment: (Reply)

• Too inaccurate Guest (Pete) on 01/21/2006 at 12:00 AM

  Posts: 1

  Dr. Church's recent paper (Science. 2005 309:1728-32)is a technical coup de grace. But a personal human genome sequence based solely on this technology will most likely not be sufficiently accurate. In light of recent studies showing very high frequencies of copy number length polymorphisms (see Jan. '06 Nat Genet.) that will confound the sequencing and fundamental genome assembly and annotation errors (Cytogenet Genome Res. 2006;112:1-5), any attempt to directly relate the sequence(s) from an individual to their pathogenicity would be medically irresponsible. A combination of technologies will be needed. Rate this comment: (Reply)

  • The Personal Genome Project Guest (George Gallman ) on 01/24/2006 at 12:00 AM

    Posts: 1

    I have a number of health related problems that make it difficult for me to find reasonably priced insurance.  One problem is height.  I much too short for my weight.  It seems if a person is already on the short end of the insurance program it may well be of an advantage to find some positive markers that may indicate that they are a better risk than current screening tools.  Furthermore, some indicators may allow early treatment of problems that could increase life expectancy and decrease cost of treatment if such treatment were delayed, thereby increasing insure-ability. I am willing to be one early ones. Http://www.ggallman.com Rate this comment: (Reply)