The dating app joins the DNA base

The idea is to compare genomes to make sure that people who share a genetic mutation never meet, don't fall in love and therefore don't have children. The church claims that the dating app that matches people based on DNA could be a cheap way to eradicate thousands of diseases that cost "around a trillion dollars a year, all over the world".

From the combination of the possible conditions of the parents (healthy, sick, carriers), derive the probability that a hereditary disease is transmitted to the offspring. If the parents are both carriers (quite common recessive conditions) the possibility that the child is born sick is 25 percent. Church, which is also known for designing provocative projects, claims that the genetic matching app developed by DigiD8 could be run in the background on existing dating sites, "like the GPS", to prevent people from meeting through these services.

Genome sequencing still costs about $ 750 today, but the price is steadily decreasing and according to Church it could be incorporated into the subscription amount of dating sites. The app - Church specifies - would not provide any data on people's health, but would only use their genes to exclude risky correspondences. Compared to the prenatal tests available today, which identify dozens of at-risk genes, DigiD8 could expand this list by the hundreds, with applications that some consider being very worrying and borderline with eugenics.

Il Sole 24 Ore - 17/12/2019