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IPFS News Link • Technocracy

Extreme Prejudice: DNA Scan For Babies Detects 1,800 Diseases

• https://www.technocracy.news, BY: LARRY HUGHES

The trial allows newborns to be tested before showing symptoms of diseases, including some cancers.

Robert Green, medical geneticist at Harvard and co-director of the BabySeq Project along with Alan Beggs, told CBS This Morning the scan could "absolutely" save a child's life in the future.

But as Green told CBS This Morning, there are also drawbacks to the program.

"I would have to say I'm not 100 percent comfortable with it. What we're really trying to do in this study is ask the question, 'How beneficial or harmful is it to go down this road?'" Green said.

Some of the potential risks include breaches of privacy and genetic discrimination.

"We can't predict what kind of discrimination is going to be occurring by the time your child grows up," Green told CBS. "We can't predict whether there's some sort of privacy breaches, this information gets out and is used against your child in some sort of future scenario. And we, most importantly, we can't predict the information's accurate."


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