When all the Icelanders volunteered to give DNA samples they did not give permission to be told the results.
About 0.8% of Icelanders carry the breast cancer BRCA2 gene. The same gene that threatens males with untreatable prostate cancer.
"That is utter...bullshit," says Dr. Kári Stefánsson (founder of DNA testing company deCODE). "There is a tradition in...society, to save people who are in life-threatening situations, without asking them for informed consent..."
Iceland's use of "presumed consent" was ultimately deemed unconstitutional. And Stefánsson's outrage does seem a little 'convenient' given his connection to deCODE.
