DNA kit offer for migrant kids raises concerns
Mountain View genetic testing company 23andMe has offered to donate DNA test kits to help migrant children in detention centers reunite with their parents — prompting logistical and ethical concerns about an undertaking that genetics experts say would be a first in the United States.
U. S. immigration officials have detained more than 2,300 children of migrants at the U. S.Mexico border under President Trump’s “zero tolerance policy,” deporting or jailing the parents and keeping the children in detention facilities or foster homes in Texas, Arizona and California. Many parents have reportedly received sparse information from officials about how to get in touch with their children later; many of the children are toddlers and babies.
On Thursday, 23andMe said it would provide its kits and resources to federal officials to help reconnect the separated families but offered few details on how it would proceed beyond CEO
Anne Wojcicki saying on Twitter, “We are waiting to see the best way to follow up and make it happen.”
Wojcicki was approached this week by Rep. Jackie Speier, DHillsborough, who suggested that DNA test kits — which some customers have used to track down relatives based on their shared genes — could help reunify families.
The company would need approval from the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is overseeing the detention centers, for the tests to be received and used at the facilities, Speier’s office said. Neither HHS nor the Administration for Children and Families, a division of the agency, responded to requests for comment Friday. The DNA tests would also have to make their way to the parents, many of whom have been deported to Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. A staffer in Speier’s office floated the possibility of sending the kits to the U. S. embassy in each country.
It is a potentially novel idea that could push the boundaries of what a direct- to- consumer genetic test like 23andMe could achieve. But it raises questions about privacy and consent, particularly because it involves children. Usually, children younger than 18 need to get consent from a parent to submit their DNA for genetic testing. But because the detained children are now wards of the state, the federal government would have to act as their temporary guardian and give that consent. Experts also worry whether the DNA data collected could be stored and accessed by law enforcement agencies, including those that investigate crimes and oversee deportation.
“Who would guarantee the privacy of these children?” said Sheldon Krimsky, a professor at Tufts University who has written about the use of DNA in criminal investigations. “These children have not committed a crime. In our country, if you haven’t committed a crime, there’s no reason to store your DNA anywhere. Will it automatically go onto a federal database? Who’s going to protect the children to make sure their DNA samples are not sold to a third party? Or put in a government database? These are serious questions.”
A 23andMe spokesman said the program is in its early stages, and the company will provide more details when they emerge.
DNA matching has been used by governments in Argentina and El Salvador to reunite children who were taken from their parents because of civil unrest or a dictatorial regime. But it has yet to be used the same way in the United States, experts said — with the exception of when the federal and state governments used DNA technology after 9/ 11 and Hurricane Katrina to help people locate their relatives by testing human remains.
“I feel like we have an ethical obligation to reunite these families as soon as possible,” said Nicola Cadenas, a genetic counselor at the UCSF Cancer Genetics and Prevention Program. Cadenas worked with Louisiana officials after Hurricane Katrina to help people locate their family members using DNA samples to match with unidentified bodies.
“You cannot ask an 18- monthold or a 2- year- old who their parent is,” she said. “So if there’s been any loss of information, then DNA testing has the potential to identify who a parent is. But that information from the genetic test would really need to be kept secure and only used for this purpose.”