I had the perfect present lined up for my father this Christmas. For a recently retired surgeon what better gift than a personal genomics kit from 23andme. Its ongoing stream of genetic self-insight would provide him with a medical amuse bouche via a spit-and-send kit wired up to an internet profile. And since our debate at HowTheLightGetsIn last year, the price of 23andme had bottomed out from $699 to $99, placing it well within my budget. 

Unfortunately my pre-festive brainwave came on the 23^rd of November, the day after the FDA sent out a cease-and-desist letter to 23andme ordering the company to stop marketing a product that repeatedly failed to prove its predictive calculations. Apart from thwarting my idea, the cease-and-desist letter went on to trigger the most widespread series of debates to date regarding the validity of unfettered access to medical information. From the New Yorker to the Daily Mail the pros and cons were laid out, establishing battle lines of of paternalism vs democratisation, or safety vs progress, depending on which side you stood. Case-studies of lives saved by spit-kits were countered by others in which Pandora’s box had been opened without the help of a medical or psychological guide.