‘Nature’s driving force is to ensure that you produce the healthiest possible offspring, so what DNA matching offers is the chance to pick a partner with the widest possible variety of genes...,’ Eric Holzle, the guy behind a DNA dating site.
ScientficMatch.com and GenePartner.com were inspired by the Claus Wedekind 1995 ‘sweaty T-shirt’ experiment where women sniffed T-shirts of similarly aged men and rated their body odors.
To play, all one need do is visit one of the sites and purchase a DNA sampling kit for about $50 bucks. Swab your mouth, send back the goo, and two weeks later get a list of names and phone numbers.
Snake oil? Probably. Suppose the list of names includes serial killers or guys that look like Mike Tyson and Dennis Rodman? Are you then supposed to start breeding mutants just because your DNA matches a pervert?
Not everyone agrees, nor should they. As the poets insist, love is a mystery - not a vile full of DNA and a cold list of names spit out by a lab computer.
