Will Candidates' DNA Play a Role in Future Elections?

By Pete Shanks, AlterNet. Posted January 20, 2009.

This demonstrates a major problem with generalized genomic tests, especially if they are to be used for such a complex question as choosing an individual for a particular job. George Church is missing the point when he says that "it is not like we are collecting horoscope data or tea-leaf data. These are real facts, just as real as bank accounts and the influence of political action committees or family members." What do the facts mean? How do you interpret them? The date of birth you give an astrologer is factual; the predictions are a matter of interpretation.

What any particular collection of genetic variants implies is a very tricky question. It's so difficult that the Departments of Health in California and New York have complained about direct-to-consumer genetic tests precisely because consumers do not have the expertise needed to evaluate the data without expert help. They have argued that companies selling gene tests are, in effect, practicing medicine without a license. (The best-known California firms involved have settled this dispute, but others have limited their activities.)

So how would voters and commentators interpret a candidate's gene scan? More than that, how would we make political judgments even if the genomic facts were more or less clear? President Lincoln may have had Marfan Syndrome, which could perhaps have been predicted from a genome scan. He may also have suffered from a form of depression that might have been reflected in his DNA. Would we have been better off disqualifying him? Would the nation even exist if we had?

Certain medical conditions are generally considered important for voters to know -- but even then, the case of Franklin Roosevelt muddies the matter. Hard as it is to imagine nowadays, he concealed from the public the fact that he was paralyzed and used a wheelchair. And he was elected four times and is generally ranked as one of the three best Presidents ever.

What was FDR's greatest strength? Many say it was his temperament. That may be partly inherited -- there are plenty of phlegmatic children of phlegmatic parents -- but there is no known specific gene for temperament, and therefore no genomic test. Even if we could test for a collection of genes associated with calmness in the face of crisis, the answer is very unlikely to be definitive. Stanford's James Gross has pointed out that "genetically identical people can give very different outward impressions because they think differently, they regulate their emotions differently." Genes, in other words, are only part of the story.

And sometimes what the genomic data suggest is just flat wrong. For instance, one anemic woman was surprised to discover that she had a gene for hemochromatosis, which involves abnormally high levels of iron in the blood. (Sounds like a country song: Who you going to believe -- the DNA print-out or your lying blood?) James Watson, the co-discoverer of the double helix and one of the few whose genome is public, does not suffer from either of two diseases for which he "has the genes."

Balancing the possibilities revealed by genomics is never going to be the best way to select a President. And learning how to interpret such tests for ourselves, for our own use, will itself be challenging. Sequencing technology will continue to improve; predictive interpretation will too -- but if you're looking for certainty, don't hold your breath.

Meanwhile Secret Service agents bag and trash any glass the President uses while away from the White House, so no one can steal his genetic secrets. It's probably just as well.

See more stories tagged with: elections, genetics, dna, genome scans

Pete Shanks is the author of Human Genetic Engineering and a contributor to the Biopolitical Times blog (www.biopoliticaltimes.org).

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