American DNA
The Politics of Potentiality in a Genomic Age
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2223422 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sandra Soo-Jin Lee (0000-0002-2312-9814, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue | S7 |
| Pages | S77-S86 |
| Publication date | 2013-10-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Current Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0011-3204 • E-ISSN: 1537-5382 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/670970 |
| OpenAlex | W2068050683 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 12 |
| References cited | 28 |
As genotyping technologies have precipitously decreased in cost since the completion of the Human Genome Project, personal genetic testing has increasingly been marketed to consumers. Genetic testing is now available for an ever-expanding list of genetic mutations associated with diseases-including breast cancer, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's-as well as traits such as ancestry, intelligence, and athleticism. Close examination of the direct-to-consumer personal genomic industry reveals several forms of potentiality at work that are informed by imagined and real power over bodily information. The marketing and consumption of personal genetic information relies on constructions of biological potential that result from struggles over the ability to control and act on individualized genetic information and to translate it into meaning. This paper explores the emerging discourse over personal genetic testing-and the marketing and consumption of the alluring and carefully tailored idea of potentiality that fuels American entrepreneurialism-and concepts of freedom and self-actualization. Policy debates over rights of access to genotyping fail to recognize the shifting landscape of human genomics in the United States. Genes in the marketplace are justified by liberalism, civic republicanism, and multiculturalism propelling a paradigm shift away from traditional models of governance toward open access to genetic testing and minimization of individual harm. The turn to the market emboldens the consumer and creates a new set of social meanings and ethical quandaries over who may harness the potential attributed to genetic information and for what purposes
Biology · Genetic discrimination · Genetic testing · Genome · Genomics · Internet privacy · Personal genomics · Personally identifiable information · Political science · Sociology · Biomedical Ethics and Regulation · BRCA gene mutations in cancer · Computer Science · Genetics · Law · Race, Genetics, and Society
Unsettling disciplinary frontiers
Attitudes and experiences of European clinical geneticists towards direct-to-consumer genetic testing
Consumer (dis-)interest in genetic ancestry testing
[Mis]Placing Race in Biomedical Clinical Context
A Tale of Two Molecular Californias
Genetic ancestry testing among white nationalists
Genómica y eugenesia
Wireless Heart Patients and the Quantified Self
Potentiality and Humanness
The Anthropology of Potentiality in Biomedicine
Ancestry, Temporality, and Potentiality
Reconceiving the New World Order
A Companion to the Anthropology of Politics
The Science and Business of Genetic Ancestry Testing
The visible human project
Where are you going, where have you been
The Political Economy of Hope
Democratizing Science Movements
Enterprising or altruistic selves? Making up research subjects in genetics research
Potentializing Newborn Screening
On Ambivalence and Risk
| Citations per year | 0.92 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2013 - 2022 (10) |
| Highly cited | No |