This first appeared at The Daily Beast on November 26, 2013. Read the original version here.
In its infinite wisdom, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has forbidden the personal genetic testing service 23andMe from soliciting new customers, claiming the company hasn’t proven the validity of its product.
The real reason? Because when it comes to learning about your own goddamn genes,the FDA doesn’t think you can handle the truth. That means the FDA is now officially worse than Oedipus’s parents, Dr. Zaius, and the god of Genesis combined, telling us that there are things that us mere mortals just shouldn’t be allowed to know.
23andMe allows you to get rudimentary information about your genetic makeup, including where your ancestors came from and DNA markers for over 240 different hereditary diseases and conditions (not all of them bad, by the way). Think of it as the H&M version of the haute couture genetic mark-up that Angelina Jolie had done prior to having the proactive mastectomy that she revealed this year.
23andMe is fun and it’s cool and, as my Reason colleague Ronald Bailey has shown, it is a small but meaningful step toward a glorious future of radically individualized medical interventions and a deeper understanding of the human condition on a fundamental level. Marlo Thomas had no idea just how right she was when she released her Free to Be...You and Me records.
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