{"id":88703,"date":"2019-03-16T03:04:12","date_gmt":"2019-03-16T10:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/this-harvard-scientist-wants-your-dna-to-wipe-out-inherited-diseases-should-you-hand-it-over"},"modified":"2019-03-16T03:04:12","modified_gmt":"2019-03-16T10:04:12","slug":"this-harvard-scientist-wants-your-dna-to-wipe-out-inherited-diseases-should-you-hand-it-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/this-harvard-scientist-wants-your-dna-to-wipe-out-inherited-diseases-should-you-hand-it-over","title":{"rendered":"This Harvard scientist wants your DNA to wipe out inherited diseases \u2014 should you hand it over?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Imagine a future where an online dating app<\/a> doesn\u2019t just match you to potential partners who meet your preferences for age, height and fondness for pinot noir, but to those with whom you\u2019re genetically compatible. Not so much people you\u2019re likely to have physical chemistry with \u2013 apps that make dubious claims to do that on the basis of a cheek swab already exist \u2013 but those with whom you won\u2019t pass on a devastating genetic disease to your children.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not sexy stuff; certainly not first-date conversation. Most people only discover that they\u2019re among the four per cent who carry the same recessive genetic mutation for a rare condition, such as cystic fibrosis or Tay-Sachs, as their partner when their baby is born with it \u2013 or dies from it.<\/p>\n

True, couples could find out their genes don\u2019t mix after they\u2019ve decided to have a baby and before they start trying \u2013 but how heartbreaking would that be, once they\u2019re already in love? Far simpler never to meet in the first place, and simply to pick from the other 96 per cent with whom they can mate with abandon.<\/p>\n

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Imagine a future where an online dating app doesn\u2019t just match you to potential partners who meet your preferences for age, height and fondness for pinot noir, but to those with whom you\u2019re genetically compatible. Not so much people you\u2019re likely to have physical chemistry with \u2013 apps that make dubious claims to do that [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,19,412],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-chemistry","category-genetics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}