Ten participants in the Personal Genome Project or the "PGP-10", have volunteered to share their DNA sequences, medical records, and other personal information with the research community and the general public.
And the goal, according to the New York Times is "expand to 100,000 participants (in order) to speed medical research by dispensing with the elaborate precautions traditionally taken to protect the privacy of human subjects. The more genetic information can be made open and publicly available, nearly everyone agrees, the faster research will progress."
The article goes on to say that "a new federal law prohibits health insurers and employers from discriminating against individuals on the basis of their genetic profile. But any one of the PGP 10 could be denied life insurance, long-term care insurance or disability insurance, with no legal penalty."
Check out http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/20/us/20gene.html?hp and http://www.personalgenomes.org/
for more extensive information.
So the question becomes -- would you participate in this type of project which could have life-saving benefits but with possible recrimnation to yourself?