Sure, why not? Let's start with concerns. The number one concern is privacy. There are people who are worried that your genetic information can be traced back to you and that this could be used, at best, for profit by some third party, or at worst, can be used against you. I think the point is mute. In the modern age, any type of personal information has a chance to be traced back to you, and one of the 2 outcomes I just supplied are valid there as well. The biggest concern I see is that most people have no idea how this technology works, what it can do, what it cant do, or what it even means. No commercially available whole genome sequencing exists (it does for research, but Billy from Ohio is going to use this to find out if he's Irish or not); rather, they only sequence specific regions called genetic markers. The nature of these markers are numerous, but the measurable outcome is "what features are associated with this marker? Which features are associated with a particular constellation of markers?" By "features" I mean, you could ask "what genetic markers are associated modern Irish populations?" or "which markers are most associated with cancer risk?" or really whatever you want. The thing is, most features are multifactorial, and no one single gene has a strong influence on any particular trait. I'm not familiar with Ancestory.com, but I'm familiar with how 23andMe handle this. You results come with a packet explaining how everything was done, what it means, and how the conclusions were made. These are explained in simple language; though for the nerds, super detailed and specific methods are also included. In either case, it's very important that one understands the limits of the techology AND what it's actually measuring. "oh?! I have a 50% increased risk of developing certain types of cancer!" does not mean you have a 50/50 chance of getting cancer, it means the risk has increased by 50%, NOT increased to 50%. . So, if the "baseline" risk for a type of cancer was 2% over ones lifetime, this would now be 3% -- not 50%. I think it's fine people have access to this technology, but I'm concerned that people will (un)inentionally misuse it.
