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2019 All Babies Will Get DNA Sequencing At Birth?

DNA sequencing costs are falling so far so fast that in 10 years DNA sequencing of babies will be commonplace at birth. Cuckolds will learn of their plight while standing outside hospital delivery rooms.

Every baby born a decade from now will have its genetic code mapped at birth, the head of the world's leading genome sequencing company has predicted.

A complete DNA read-out for every newborn will be technically feasible and affordable in less than five years, promising a revolution in healthcare, says Jay Flatley, the chief executive of Illumina.

Only social and legal issues are likely to delay the era of “genome sequences”, or genetic profiles, for all. By 2019 it will have become routine to map infants' genes when they are born, Dr Flatley told The Times.

Of course, this won't be commonplace in the poorer countries. But in industrialized countries a complete DNA sequence at birth will come to be seen as prudent for many reasons. Most obvious: Before the father's name gets placed on the birth certificate the hospital will verify just who is dad.

Genetic diseases that cause damage when the wrong foods are consumed will be known about from the start. Also, knowledge of genetic factors that contribute to autism might eventually become useful to help initiate treatment that'll alter the direction of brain development to make the disorder less severe.

Why else get sequenced at birth? To transfer the data to exclusive competitive kindergartens and grade schools which will of course evaluate applications for admission of Jill and Johnnie at least partially based on their genetic potential.

Sounds great in theory. But I have already seen Gataca, and I didn't find this technology very amusing.

Source www.futurepundit.com