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Duke University professor Nita FarahanyWorld Economic Forum / Screenshot

DAVOS, Switzerland (LifeSiteNews) — A Duke University professor and “futurist” said on Friday that “genetic predictions” could play a role in whether people “decide to have children” in the future. 

“A lot of people and a lot of different organizations that I work with struggle with questions of genetic predictions, particularly for highly penetrant, meaning it’s very very predictive that you will likely develop the disease, like ALS for example, but you don’t know when.” Nita Farahany said during a panel discussion entitled “Transforming Medicine, Redefining Life.” 

“So, you have incredibly high prediction, but very little sense about when the onset [of the disease] would be.” 

“How do you counsel somebody about how to integrate that information into their lives, whether or not they should do genetic testing?” Farahany asked. “What the implications for their family members may be as well, because if they have that particular gene, that particular mutation, it may very well be that their children have it; Or it may very well implicate whether or not they decide to have children, to pass that along to their children.” 

Farahany also discussed if employers and insurance companies should have access to people’s health data and “genetic predictions.” 

RELATED: World Economic Forum speaker touts technology that allows your boss to monitor your brain activity 

In a previous talk, the Duke University professor said that wearable mind-reading devices are not a figment of the future, but are already here. 

 

Like “Fitbits for the brain,” “already, using consumer-wearable devices — these are headbands, hats that have sensors that can pick up your brain wave activity, earbuds, headphones, tiny tattoos that you can wear behind your ear — we can pick up emotional states,” like happiness or sadness or anger, said Farahany. 

The vision that Farahany described in her talks appears to go together well with the idea of a biomedical security state, something other WEF speakers have alluded to. Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair recently said at another Davos event that digital vaccine records and digital infrastructure for health data are “important” in preparing for future pandemics. 

READ: G20 Summit promotes international digital vaccine passports for ‘future pandemics’ 

 

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