Knowing Mycellf™

Abstract

The author explores the emergence of direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing as a means of economizing information or knowledge about “bodily fate.” She begins by examining the parallels and incommensurabilities between the kinds of bodily information that have been produced historically and those now generated by the application of advanced genome sequencing technologies. She then explores how contemporary understandings of disease are coproduced by individuals identified as potential constituents of disease communities by these forms of testing. The chapter concludes with a review of the implications that this involvement in the coproduction of understanding of disease has for the global regulation of DTC genetic testing. Show more