I’ve been following with fascination the overwhelming evidence about brain injuries caused by football. On the one hand, I believe in individual autonomy. On the other hand, I’m not really a fan of football. But I also don’t favor paternalistic policies that limit individuals from undertaking calculated risks. And yet, what about undisclosed risks? All […]
Author Archive | Nita Farahany
Our commentary on why the FDA should allow 23andMe to proceed
For those of you who have been following FDA actions against the consumer genomics company 23andMe (see my prior posts here and here), you may enjoy the commentary that Robert Green (geneticist at Harvard) and I published in Nature today. We argue that it’s an open question whether FDA has jurisdiction over the health-related interpretations that […]
Class Action Suit Filed Against 23andMe
Well that didn’t take very long. Five days after the FDA issued a cease and desist letter to 23andme, San Diego resident Lisa Casey has has filed a class action law suit, and she is seeking to represent the “ten or hundreds of thousands” of others across America who paid for the product and were […]
FDA Overreach and 23andMe
According to the FDA, a soiled plastic cup is a medical device subject to its jurisdiction. In its seemingly infinite expanse, the FDA has issued a cease and desist letter to 23andMe stating: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is sending you this letter because you are marketing the 23andMe Saliva Collection Kit and Personal Genome Service […]
Ilya’s Sensationalized “Designer Babies”
I hate to be disagreeable (especially since I’m new here, and all) but I take serious issue with Ilya’s gloss on “Designer Babies.” I find so many parts of his post problematic that I hardly know where to begin. [The conflating of self-enhancement with offspring enhancement? His seeming endorsement of state-sponsored control of reproduction? The […]
Bias in the Northern District of Georgia?
On Sunday, the Atlanta Journal of Constitution published a front-page story: Workers Who Cry Foul Seldom Get a Day in Court. The story focuses on an empirical study on summary dismissal of employment discrimination claims brought in the Northern District of Georgia in 2011 and 2012. That study reveals that it is “nearly impossible to get […]
Eavesdropping on the Brain
Everyone has been so distracted by the government shutdown and before that, Edward Snowden and the NSA, that you probably missed the first real-time study of eavesdropping on the brain that was just published. Before you get too excited, you should realize that the particular technique described in this paper is unlikely to spawn a […]
Hello Conspiracy!
Hello Conspiracy! I am truly delighted to be joining you as the newest Conspirator, and thank Eugene for the invitation and warm welcome. I’ll be blogging primarily about issues at the intersection of law and the biosciences, including developments in neuroscience, philosophy of biology, and bioethics and the law. Occasionally, I’ll be posting about seemingly […]