Credit: iStockphoto
"I have chosen not to learn whether I have a gene that increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease," Steven Pinker, a professor at Harvard University and a leading proponent of evolutionary psychology, wrote recently in The New York Times.
Pinker is among the first 10 individuals whose genomes are to be sequenced and posted on the Internet as part of the Personal Genome Project, a public database for researchers that aims to compile complete genetic profiles of 100,000 people.
"Personal genomics is here to stay," argues Pinker. "People who have grown up with the democratisation of information will not tolerate paternalistic regulations that keep them from their own genomes."
Marlowe Hood and Veronique Martinache are writers for the AFP news agency.
