Is Genetic Testing Overrated?
DNA testing is big business - but what do you really find out when you send off your spit sample?
DNA testing is big business. Millions of people worldwide are finding out about their ancestry and genetic health traits by sending off a spit sample to one of the big consumer genetic testing companies. But what do your genes really tell you? And could genetic testing have harmful consequences for our health and for society? Four experts chart the rise of consumer genetic testing and examine the claims made and our expectations about the results.
Presenter: Helena Merriman
Producer: Lucy Proctor
(image: Tube collecting saliva for dna testing of genetic markers.
Photo By BSIP/UIG/Getty Images)
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Where did you come from?
Duration: 01:32
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- Thu 27 Sep 201802:06GMTBBC World Service Online, Americas and the Caribbean, UK DAB/Freeview & West and Central Africa only
- Thu 27 Sep 201803:06GMTBBC World Service South Asia & East Asia only
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- Thu 27 Sep 201807:06GMTBBC World Service Europe and the Middle East
- Thu 27 Sep 201814:06GMTBBC World Service except Online & News Internet
- Thu 27 Sep 201819:06GMTBBC World Service except East and Southern Africa, News Internet & West and Central Africa
- Mon 1 Oct 201803:06GMTBBC World Service Australasia
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- Mon 1 Oct 201806:06GMTBBC World Service East Asia
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