Ethics of Hacking the Most Personal Information: DNA

In his book Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity, Jamie Metzl writes about the near future of 'hacking' the most personal information— DNA. As technology improves rapidly, the possibility of ensuring your child is born healthy— with specific genetic traits— is increasing. On the surface, this appears to be clear-cut beneficial, but as you investigate the information ethics of the process, the picture begins to blur.

Luciano Floridi breaks down information ethics as this: an agent uses some information (a resource) to create other information (a product) and, in turn, affects some surrounding information environment (the target). He argues that each of the three facets play a role in determining the ethics of the agent’s action. In the case of genetic engineering, the agent is the potential parents of the child. The resource is the ability to create thousands of embryos from skin cells from a male and female donor and read the DNA of each to see which specific embryos are prone to certain traits. If the parents select this route, the product is the genetically chosen information stored in the DNA of the embryo, and the target is the child.

For this to be considered an ethical use of information, each facet needs to be considered and each poses a potential ethical dilemma. First, the resource will not be accessible to all— only the wealthy will be able to take advantage of this process (at least in the earlier, more expensive days of the development). According to Floridi, information ethics is concerned with the three A’s: ‘availability, accessibility, and accuracy’, and the resource only being available to some poses a considerable problem. Second, new information, in the form of DNA, has been produced, but not in the more ‘natural’ sense. Depending on an individual’s own moral guideline, this, in and of itself, could pose ethical problems. Third, this targets an individual that has no knowledge of the process at all; a person’s DNA is evaluated and ‘hacked’ by a third party prior to their own birth.

As improving technology continues to make this a reality, it is crucial to discuss the ethics regarding this process. Where should the line be drawn? How far is too far? Should— or how should— this be regulated? What groups of people will be impacted? Understanding this discussion is necessary as we begin to take the first steps of genetically modifying the DNA of our future.