Home Genetic Testing

New technology is flooding the market with home genetics testing. For $99 and a swab of your cheek, 23andMe offers consumers ancestry data and, until recently, personalized information about genetic traits and health conditions. In November, that part of the service was suspended, when the Food and Drug Administration ordered the company to stop marketing what it claims is a diagnostic device requiring FDA pre-approval. Kira Peikoff is a graduate student in bioethics at Columbia University. She was curious to see what we're missing with the FDA ban in place, and decided to compare the accuracy of three of the home genetics testing kits.