Judging Direct-to-Consumer Genetics: Negotiating Expertise and Agency in Public Biotechnological Practice

This article analyzes how providers of direct-to-consumer genetic tests communicate about abstract, technical genetic science with nonexpert audiences. It argues that direct-to-consumer genetics reveals a stasis in public discourse over where legitimate agency for interpreting genetic test results, judging their meaning, and making decisions in response to them should rest. Rhetorical analysis of textual communication between lay people and providers of genetic biotechnological products shows that in these communicative transactions, norms of what counts as expertise are contested, and interpretive spaces for personal judgment are opened that aid nonexpert deliberation about technical issues in applied genetic biotechnology.