With Ancestry.com’s recent jump into the family DNA home test market, some experts caution consumers to consider the accuracy and implications of DNA testing for any type of use, family history research or otherwise. One article posted on Maketplace.org looks into the issue:
Home DNA kits — to test or not to test?
by Adriene Hill
Ancestry.com, the genealogy site, is going to offer more advanced DNA testing for its members, helping people find ancestors all the way back to the 18th century. All you have to do is take a home DNA test.
Art Caplan is the incoming medical ethics head at NYU. He says, “The technology is pretty remarkable. You can certainly look for different distinctive markers on your genes and find them and say look all these other people have the same marker. I must be related to them. But, most of us, when we think about ancestry, we’re talking about social and cultural groupings that are imposed upon those genes. It’s not the genetic technology that’s weak. It’s that our ideas about ethnicity, race, are so tied up in our history, politics, that it’s a little awkward to try and squeeze them on a genetic analysis.”
And, he says, for all the advances in genetic testing, “It’s not anything close to 100 percent accurate even for the small amount of genetic material you’re looking at. So, you could think, ah, I finally know that I’m from this tribe or this group, maybe not.”