The 20th century was dubbed ‘the century of the gene’. You could say it started with the coining of the word ‘gene’ in 1903. Fifty years later, James Watson and Francis Crick used Rosalind Franklin’s X-ray diffraction images to describe the double-helix structure of DNA, short for deoxyribonucleic acid. After another 50 years, in 2003, the sequence of all genetic variants in the human genome had been mapped. In 2008, Time Magazine crowned the at-home DNA kit — a plastic receptacle that you spit in at home and then mail off — ‘Invention of the Year’. By the end of 2021, more than 30 million people had ordered such a kit: They had paid to have their DNA genotyped and interpreted.

Today, the number of customers of genetic testing services likely exceeds 60 million people. Genomic data feature in all areas of life: They inform clinical diagnoses and disease treatments just as much as they help ensure the compatibility of reality TV couples (yes, ‘Married at First Sight’ used ‘DNA matching techniques’). Before the rise of Ozempic, ‘personalized nutrition’ based on your DNA was the go-to miracle cure for dietary and weight problems. This is the first reason why we need to talk about genetics: DNA is everywhere.

People, who are turning an at-home DNA kit over in their hands usually ponder one of two interferences to their mental felicitousness. The first is paralysis, from the fear that behaving one way or another will trigger their genetic risk into a phenotypic reality (usually a nasty illness that nobody wants). Will I chastise myself for every glass of wine, for every sugary dessert, for every hour not spent exercising in fresh air when I know my high risk for dementia? Knowledge can empower us, but — as Adam and Eve, the original ancestors of some, famously demonstrated — it can also render us stiff lumps of shame,........

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