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November 20, 2021 identity

Genetic Geneology

The November 22, 2021 Issue of The New Yorker has an article entitled How Your Family Tree Could Catch a Killer by Raffi Khatchadourian.

In the midst of the discussion of the ethics of genetic testing, I found this:

Even in the best of circumstances, the nature of DNA made the question of consent particularly thorny. As one commenter on a genealogy blog pointed out, “When YOU give consent, you are also giving consent for fifty percent of your mother’s and fifty percent of your father’s DNA, too.”

Doesn’t this help break down our especially American belief that we are each autonomous, separate individuals? Part of our genetic “identity” also belongs to other people.

I’m not even sure what questions this raises, but I’m sure there are many.

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PANCHO LÓPEZ In the summer between my junior and senior years in high school (I think), the father of my best friend, Mark (“Gruesome”) Grandy, found us jobs
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Our Living Contradiction The November 14, 2021 issue of the New York Times Magazine contains an article by Jake Silverstein entitled A Nation of Argument. (If you follow the