DNA is special. Unlike other body parts, it holds information. Even discarding a blood spot or saliva sample doesn t necessarily prevent the telltale DNA sequences from living on in a database.

We guard our DNA data in a way that we don t other test results, such as cholesterol levels. Genes are uniquely ours. They say something about us at some fundamental level, more than a mammogram or a Pap smear or an x-ray, said James Evans, MD PhD, professor of genetics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, at a symposium on DNA patenting at the International Congress of Human Genetics in Montreal in October 2011.