We're all related, really. It just depends to what degree you want to consider "related". I'm related to my cat, to you, and even to the tree outside my office if I go back enough generations.
23andMe Informed Me My Husband and I Are Related
61–70 of 91 posts
Re: 23andMe Informed Me My Husband and I Are Related
#62I work in genomics. My lab, many of my friends and acquaintances work in genomics or had to dabble with it for at least one of their projects. You would think we would all be fascinated by this stuff, getting to know your own DNA and everything. Yet I don't know a single person who would even consider using 23andMe's service. To me this is all an elaborate scam. Why on earth would you pay them to give them your data…
The thing is, though, if the world becomes as much of a dystopia where the people who have their data on file at 23andme causes some sort of major havoc in their lives, why do you think it will stop there? Either the world will turn into a dystopia or it won't. If it does, not giving out your DNA sequencing information is, in all likelihood, not going to allow you to avoid getting caught up in it.
The thing about a dystopia is that you can't control everybody or else you will incite a revolution. There is actually a balance that you need to maintain. Privilege is one of the main ways of maintaining slavery. For example, if you are 1 person and you want to control 10 slaves, it is not really possible -- they will gang up on you. However, if you make one of the 10 slaves the "head slave", then they have an incentive to maintain the status quo. If you then make it clear to the other slaves that they can be upgraded to "head slave" as you expand your slave empire, then they will also have incentive to maintain the status quo. Your goal as a slave keeper is simply to make the reward/liability comparison work out ever so slightly on the reward side. You want people thinking, "Well, if I work hard, then I might be made head slave. And my slavery is not so bad. If I try to run away or rebel, then I might be beaten -- and I don't even know if I can survive if I run away".
No matter what dystopian world you live in, you will always be given the illusions that life is better as it is than it would be if you were free. They aren't going to throw you to the wolves completely. Instead, they will always present you with a dilemma: "As long as you only do X, you'll be fine, so there is no need to fight against it". In terms of privacy, there always has to be the question, "Why do you need so much privacy anyway?" If you answer that question, then you will break your balance (see recent Facebook "scandals" -- nothing changed except the general understanding of why people wanted privacy).
The advice to avoid problems is a pragmatic one. "If you do X, you'll be fine" is funny because people will say that and then forget to do X. "Well, I'm sure I'll be fine anyway". If you are careful to do X, then you can avoid many of the downsides. You can use that time to break free from your slavery. Umm... Or not... (usually people choose the "or not" option).
Re: 23andMe Informed Me My Husband and I Are Related
#63A relative of mine who is a doctor mentioned to me that the opposite is a common problem when children volunteer to donate an organ to a parent. They must test for DNA compatibility which often yields bad surprises. Apparently it is gradual. The DNA of the first child almost always matches, the second a little less, the third is where the odds reduce significantly. Granted that was in France...
That's not the opposite, it's the same thing looking from a different place.
Re: 23andMe Informed Me My Husband and I Are Related
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
> With this company you end up $100 (or whatever) short and you surrender your data for it to be sold to ... .... insurance companies and whatnot. False ! Source : https://www.23andme.com/about/privacy/ We will not provide any person’s data (genetic or non-genetic) to an insurance company or employer.
Some great things about companies that you can always count on: - They never change their terms of service - The demand for constant growth never causes them to reconsider ethically dubious revenue streams - They never get acquired
- They never ever get hacked, and even if they do, the insurance compamy would feel immoral to buy the hacked data dump
Re: 23andMe Informed Me My Husband and I Are Related
#65A relative of mine who is a doctor mentioned to me that the opposite is a common problem when children volunteer to donate an organ to a parent. They must test for DNA compatibility which often yields bad surprises. Apparently it is gradual. The DNA of the first child almost always matches, the second a little less, the third is where the odds reduce significantly. Granted that was in France...
That's not the opposite, it's the same thing looking from a different place.
A different position is the primary meaning of "opposite". It does not necessarily mean "contrary".
Re: 23andMe Informed Me My Husband and I Are Related
#66This is not a big deal. In fact likely better fertility for them: a 2008 deCODE study results show that couples related at the level of third cousins have the greatest number of offspring, with the greatest reproductive success observed for couples related at the level of third and fourth cousins. [1] [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18258915?ordinalpos=1&it...
I would be enormously surprised if genetic factors were the primary driver in this. I would think cultural norms and socio-economic factors would be the greatest predictors of the number of offsprings. I could easily envision that those same factors could contribute to a rise in intermarriages between 3rd and 4th cousins. For example, in small communities like "hill people" in the Appalachians, or the Hasidic communi…
The study is specifically of native Icelander's, between 1800 and 1965.
Re: 23andMe Informed Me My Husband and I Are Related
#67I'm curious of the legitimacy of this story, given one of the comments at the bottom: > Don’t believe the results. I’m retired FDA and investigated this company since its inception. 23and me swabs go to labcorp in NC. They aren’t a lab. They take the results and issue what is tantamount to a horoscope based on your demographic information. Save your $100 or whatever they are charging now.
This is a ridiculous claim. It might be less accurate than other options (although I doubt that), and misses some genetic features (repeats, insertions, translocations or deletions), but there's a huge distance between that and "a horoscope based on your demographic information".
Re: 23andMe Informed Me My Husband and I Are Related
#68I work in genomics. My lab, many of my friends and acquaintances work in genomics or had to dabble with it for at least one of their projects. You would think we would all be fascinated by this stuff, getting to know your own DNA and everything. Yet I don't know a single person who would even consider using 23andMe's service. To me this is all an elaborate scam. Why on earth would you pay them to give them your data…
>Doesn't mean it won't be misused. To add to this, though genetic information may be protected against defining a pre-existing medical condition for insurance purposes today , there's zero guarantee that that law protecting you will still exist in the future , or extend to your descendants (which can be assumed to carry roughly half of your genetic material). Once you've given this data away without any guarantee tha…
If insurance companies wanted genetic testing data they wouldn't bother trying to do a messy data join with a third-party database, they'd just make it a requirement to provide a swab/saliva sample for testing when you signed up.
Re: 23andMe Informed Me My Husband and I Are Related
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
it says in the article that their second kid was autistic.
I guess there’s a chance those facts are related.
Giving birth after 35 (in this case 37) is statistically more risky than offspring from first cousin's. A third cousin is much more distantly related than a first cousin, your first cousin has a pair of the same grandparents as you, your third cousin shares a pair of your Great-great-grandparents.
Re: 23andMe Informed Me My Husband and I Are Related
#70It's touched upon in the article, but in reality they're probably not third cousins.
23andme gives relationship estimates for people based on percentage of dna shared, these estimates are based general population data. However they're not accurate for endogamous population like Ashkenazi Jews.
Any two Ashkenazi Jews who get married are likely to show up as cousins to each other, simply because there's so much shared DNA within that community. This isn't an exceptional case, but rather the norm for such populations.