Amid the family separation crisis at the U.S. border, some concerned observers have floated an idea: Could direct-to-consumer genealogy companies offer free genetic testing to reunite children with their parents?
Just as commercial spit kits have brought together long-lost cousins or unknown siblings, the thinking goes, they might also be able to help in the current crisis. The executive order President Trump signed on Wednesday to end the administration’s policy, after all, does not address the predicament of the over 2,300 children who have already been separated from their parents.
The CEO of the genetic testing giant 23andMe, Anne Wojcicki, said on Twitter late Thursday that the company has offered to donate kits and resources to help reconnect children with their parents, adding that it was “waiting to see the best way to follow up and make it happen.”
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