23andMe Overview

No, California should let the slide and the legislators should pass a new bill allowing this.

The State can't decide to enforce some laws and not enforce others. If there is public interest to change this law, it should be done by lobbying our representative or getting a prop on the ballot.

I guess I agree with mwalsh. Although I personally don't want they to have to stop, I agree that the government needs to uphold the laws. I would personally support changing the law though.

I can't help worrying about unintended consequences for someone who signs up for this without working with a specially trained genetic counselor and or physician. If you carry the gene for a disorder, you'll want someone to explain what that means to you. The site, to its credit, does say they emphasize this point as well. Also, what if health/life insurance companies got hold of this info?

Of course they should enforce the law. Not to do so would be the equivalent of anarchy. (Which we already have here in CA, for other reasons, but that's a whole 'nother discussion...)

Anyhow, they should absolutely enforce the law, not pick and choose which laws to enforce. If the law needs to be changed or updated, they should do that too.

I can see one huge problem here which is, how can they verify that the person sending in the sample is the actual individual? What if somebody swiped the straw from the starbucks drink I tossed in the trash, and sent that in to these guys, and found out all my genetic information? I think they'd have a much bigger issue on their hands than what they have now if something like this were to occur -- and I can easily see it occuring.

I think tests should be ordered through a physician, the physician should be the one to send in the test and receive the results and hand them back to the individual. I think that individuals should always have the right to their genetic information, *through their physician*.

That would help ensure that "genetic information theft" does not occur. And the medical licensing board would provide further protection against abuses occurring.

Looks like California and 23andMe and Navigenics came to workable conclusion. Both companies got licenses to continue business in California but there are still a lot of unanswered questions.