How Personal Is the Genome? The Shadow of Genetic Predictions
- With big data and predictive analytics, fortune telling has become a new service product. Aside from business and ‘security’, ‘health’ is the main promise that drives data-based predictions. Individual predictions, however, inevitably remain probabilistic. Personal data can only be interpreted in the light of statistics. At the same time, reference to the genome implies that the predictions shed light on the invisible truth about one’s self. They seem to reveal an undetected ‘identity’. Hence, as Kate O’Riordan’s story shows, the genome entangles us in peculiar contradictions: It promises knowledge and predicts uncertain futures; it facilitates verdicts and calls for self-optimization; it is a statistical construct and claims to be personal.
Author: | Silja SamerskiORCiD |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7728-4_12 |
ISBN: | 978-981-15-7728-4 |
Parent Title (English): | De-Sequencing: Identity Work with Genes |
Publisher: | Palgrave Macmillan |
Place of publication: | Singapore |
Editor: | Dana Mahr, Martina von Arx |
Document Type: | Part of a Book |
Language: | English |
Year of Completion: | 2020 |
Release Date: | 2025/05/30 |
Tag: | DNA; bioethics; ethics of medicine |
First Page: | 165 |
Last Page: | 169 |
Institute: | Fachbereich Soziale Arbeit und Gesundheit |
Research Focus Area: | Ressourcenorientierung im Spannungsfeld von Individuum und Gesellschaft (ROSIG) |