“Dirty little secrets, dirty little lies…” Don Henley / Danny Kortchmar

A few years ago, I bought a DNA kit through Ancestry.com. I picked up my mom’s passion for genealogy research where she left off when she died in 2004. Even though Ancestry was founded in 1983, it would be many years before the company went beyond connecting the dots between people and helping us fill in the blanks in family trees. When the DNA kit became available, it was fairly revolutionary. Here, you could go beyond the little green leaves and find out where you came from…geographically speaking.

I dutifully spit in the little test tube. I did what 95% of people do when they set off on such a venture…I basically ignored the small print. Things like saving my little genes in memory banks, selling my genetic information to third parties, and linking me with relatives I have never heard of never crossed my mind. I didn’t feel like I was registering with the government or Big Brother. I just wanted to know if I had any Native American ancestry like I’d always heard I had. It’s minuscule. 

When I received my report, I wasn’t surprised by anything except some distant relative from Norway. Other than that, it was Scots/English/German…exactly as I expected. Then, Ancestry started sending e-mails saying they linked me to others who have done the test. It might be a 3rd cousin, 6th cousin…nothing close. I looked at the first couple. Other things soon captured my interest and in my typical Gemini fashion, I was off chasing butterflies in another field.

I recently read stories in the news about do-it-yourself DNA testing turning up surprises. Some that tear families apart. What would you do if you found siblings you’d never heard of? Or, if you found the siblings you were raised with were only half-siblings, indicating one or the other of your parents had an affair? Or, what if you were an anonymous sperm donor and suddenly you have 64 “children” out there? 

The idea of anonymity in such things is seriously long gone with the advent of a $50 DNA test kit. Something that once required blood tests and a geneticist now is available on the shelves of any chain pharmacy. People are receiving troubling information with very little counseling to go along with it. There are now tests that can help predict your chances of developing such diseases as cancer and Alzheimer’s. How far of a jump is it for insurance companies to get that information and turn you down for coverage or refuse life insurance benefits if you die of a disease that has been documented as predictable?

It is estimated that by the year 2021, 100,000,000 people will have had their DNA tested by Ancestry alone. There are several other companies doing DNA tests of one sort or another. That’s a lot of data out there. I’d like to think it isn’t going to be used nefariously, but we have no guarantees of that. I know people who refuse to do the tests. I can’t say that I really regret having mine tested. And, I really would like to know if I have a proclivity to succumb to certain diseases so that I can a) prepare myself and my family and b) practice preventative health measures.

I think I am beginning to understand what my grandma might have gone through with the space program and computers and cell phones. Things are happening now that we couldn’t have even dreamed up when we were kids. I mean…it’s beyond Dick Tracy and Get Smart. This is really crazy stuff and, I have to admit…it fascinates the dickens out of me. ❤️

“The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy.”

Proverbs 12:22 NIV