Should Individual DNA Information Be Protected Under Right To Privacy Law...

Elizabeth Warren released her DNA to put to rest questions about her ancestral heritage. Specifically whether or not she has any American Indian blood. DNA results indicate that she does. So, America knows that Senator Warren was telling the truth when she made the claim that she did. No doubt she feels immense satisfaction having put tRump in his place. But did she effectively put in place a precedent that may haunt future candidates tat consider running for public office. Slate lays such concern out convincingly.

How long will it be until a candidate finds herself effectively disqualified over a 10 percent chance of one disease or a 20 percent chance of another? An older candidate might assert that younger opponents had a greater chance of Alzheimer’s. A candidate might demand his opponent test her children’s DNA after rumors of infidelity “so we can all move on.” And another candidate might find themselves under pressure to share their DNA to verify heritage—even though the use of genetic testing for this purpose is extremely limited. Our reductive, even primitive understanding of how our genes relate to racial identity and health has produced yet another hurdle for future presidential candidates to leap (or find another way around). While it may not happen in 2020 or even 2024, it is not that far a step from the results Warren has released to the day when a candidate’s full genome is posted for review.

A power revealed soon becomes a power abused. Until Monday, Trump’s bluster was just bluster. Warren deflected his attacks, and similar attacks from her 2012 opponent Scott Brown, with relative ease. But now she has set a precedent. The “mismeasure of man” has never been prevented by new tests; it has only been shunted down new paths. We will live to see qualified candidates driven from politics over small potential flaws uncovered in their genetic makeup. We will see our nation retreat further from rational discourse, as objective proof is futilely offered and then sacrificed as “junk science” in the name of political skirmishing. President Trump will not be the last bully to demand the right to rummage through an opponent’s DNA. We must hope that Warren will be the last for a long time to allow it.

Perhaps Senator Warren should have thought out all the potential ramifications of her action choice. Maybe it won't come to the end Slate envisions. Time will tell, but, we're laying odds that Slate is right.