Genetic News Updates with the DNA Dispatch

The top 3 news stories in genetics that impact privacy and healthcare.

We are talking about current events in genetics, including Olympic sex testing, genetic privacy in insurance, and legal challenges faced by genetic testing companies. It highlights how genetic information is used, misused, and the ongoing debates around privacy and ethics.

Key words: Genetics, Olympic sex testing, Genetic privacy, Insurance discrimination, Genetic data lawsuits

Key Topics:

• The Olympics will start using SRY testing which is a scientifically flawed method of testing for biological sex

• Australia passes a country-wide law protecting against using genetic data in life insurance underwriting

• Recent lawsuit allegations bring up questions on how private your genetic data really is

Related Episodes:

• What are sex trait variations and how do we support intersex individuals? With Kaitlyn Brown

• Does genetics influence sex and gender? With Kim Zayhowski 

• When is rare disease not so rare? With Susanna Smith

• The DNA Dialogues Podcast episode #27: Protecting genetic information: Life insurance and GINA

• Should I delete my 23andMe data? With Anya Prince

• What should I know about buying a DNA test? With Andrew McCarty

Sources:

• Andrew Sinclair: World's Athletics' mandatory genetic test for women athletes is misguided. I should know- I discovered the relevant gene in 1990

• Essay: Gender verification of female athletes

• A sex test for Olympic contenders harms all women by Chris Mosier and Erika Lorshbough

• Circulating Testosterone as the Hormonal Basis of Sex Differences in Athletic Performance

• Genetic Discrimination is Coming for Us All by Kristen V. Brown

• How your health (and genetic results) affects your life, travel and health insurance

• Future implications of polygenic risk scores for life insurance underwriting

• Time to End the Use of Genetic Test Results in Life Insurance Underwriting

• U of Iowa Genetic Privacy in the US: Insurance and Law Enforcement Use

• Healthcare AI Firm Sued Over Alleged Unlawful Disclosures of Genetic Data

• Tempus AI Sued for Breach of Genetic Information Privacy Act

• Genetic data are not always personal- disaggregating the identifiability and sensitivity of genetic data

• Policy brief: can genomic data be anonymised? Global Alliance for Genomics and Health

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