Unless you can cite a single case of a doctor taking action based solely on a 23andMe test, then they are not a medical diagnostic lab. Of course this would be less of a problem if patients were allowed to order some tests on their own, and if those tests were low cost.

Submitting your test platform to new and extensive quality controls, running double-blind tests, hiring additional quality control personnel... none of this is free. To "prove" that a test is reliable to the FDA costs lots of money. This is (one of the reasons) why it's estimated that it costs 1 billion dollars to develop a new drug.

If you're saying that only a fully verified test is allowable, then you're saying that low cost test are illegal. It is not possible for a company to sell such a comprehensive test for such a low cost. I for one am willing to take a chance that some of the results might be wrong (but probably aren't) in exchange for a very low cost.

Nobody is forcing you to submit your samples to 23andMe. Of course there should be standards for police DNA evidence labs. But 23andMe is basically an entertaining service that also provides some health information. Why shouldn't consenting adults be allowed to submit their DNA to it? Especially when there is no health hazard at all (unlike "radium water").

So if you can't afford to get this low cost and effective test ($99) then you should get nothing at all? Their test is more than reliable enough for most purposes. And if you're planning on getting a double mastectomy, obviously your surgeon will do a specific follow up test.

Thanks, but I don't need such favors from the FDA. I knew exactly what I was doing when I gave my DNA, and I've gotten valuable and entertaining information as a result.

I have no affiliation to 23andMe except as a satisfied customer. I have found 23andMe's services very useful and low cost to me, and hope that they are not destroyed by this FDA action. https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/overrule-fdas-decision-bar-23andme-selling-their-potentially-life-saving-diagnostic-kits/96BRCYNB

I can see that a ChromeBook for $400 or less makes a lot of sense and would interest a lot of people. It's a nice extra computer for the living room or for a vacation. But at over $1000 I wonder what the market will be? It's too expensive to be just a toy and it's not powerful enough to be used as your only machine.

Rightly or wrongly, many things are mandated by the government and sometimes even made monopolistic (seatbelts, vaccines, safety testing, etc.). There is nothing wrong with companies profiting from filling such needs.
What is wrong is the loss of freedom that comes from the naked scanners (and the fact that they're ineffective, possibly dangerous, and were awarded to a government insider).

Redundancy costs money. So the real question is: "Are customers (consumers) willing to pay?"
Or perhaps a better idea is: You will pay either way. Chose: (1) Pay money now for redundancy and a guarantee of supply; or (2) "Pay" later through the unavailability of products.

No, it's been going on at many airports: "Similar audio-video equipment has been operating at other Canadian airports and ports of entry for "many years," according to the CBSA" ( http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/politics/Toews+orders+airport+eavesdropping+pending+privacy+review/6807247/story.html )