The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Upending Who We Are

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The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Upending Who We Are

A deeply reported look at the rise of home genetic testing and the seismic shock it has had on individual lives
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You swab your cheek or spit into a vial, then send it away to a lab somewhere. Weeks later you get a report that might tell you where your ancestors came from or if you carry certain genetic risks. Or the report could reveal a long-buried family secret and upend your entire sense of identity. Soon a lark becomes an obsession, an incessant desire to find answers to questions at the core of your being, like â€œWho am I?â€ and â€œWhere did I come from?â€ Welcome to the age of home genetic testing.
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In The Lost Family, journalist Libby Copeland investigates what happens when we embark on a vast social experiment with little understanding of the ramifications. Copeland explores the culture of genealogy buffs, the science of DNA, and the business of companies like Ancestry and 23andMe, all while tracing the story of one woman, her unusual results, and a relentless methodical drive for answers that becomes a thoroughly modern genetic detective story.
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The Lost Family delves into the many lives that have been irrevocably changed by home DNA testsâ€”a technology that represents the end of family secrets. There are the adoptees whoâ€™ve used the tests to find their birth parents; donor-conceived adults who suddenly discover they have more than fifty siblings; hundreds of thousands of Americans who discover their fathers arenâ€™t biologically related to them, a phenomenon so common it is known as a â€œnon-paternity eventâ€; and individuals who are left to grapple with their conceptions of race and ethnicity when their true ancestral histories are discovered. Throughout these accounts, Copeland explores the impulse toward genetic essentialism and raises the question of how much our genes should get to tell us about who we are. With more than thirty million people having undergone home DNA testing, the answer to that question is more important than ever.
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Gripping and masterfully told, The Lost Family is a spectacular book on a big, timely subject.
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Country USA
Brand Abrams Press
Manufacturer Harry N. Abrams
Binding Hardcover
ReleaseDate 2020-03-03
UnitCount 1
Format Picture Book
EANs 9781419743009

Country	USA
Brand	Abrams Press
Manufacturer	Harry N. Abrams
Binding	Hardcover
ReleaseDate	2020-03-03
UnitCount	1
Format	Picture Book
EANs	9781419743009

The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Upending Who We Are

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