BY TIM BONFIELD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Call it a space-age version of storing hair in a locket.
Funeral directors in Cincinnati and several states have gone beyond selling burial services, caskets and flower arrangements. They are offering to collect and store your loved one's DNA in perpetuity.
For $350, funeral directors working in conjunction with the new Cincinnati company DNA Analysis Inc. will clip a bit of hair, draw a bit of blood and run a cotton swab inside the mouth to gather samples of DNA, the complex blueprint of every human.
"The goal is to preserve your family's genetic history," said Dr. Paul Harding, a molecular and cellular biologist who co-founded DNA Analysis.
Supporters say DNA from deceased family members can help determine whether living relatives are likely to develop an inherited disease - especially a rare one. In addition, stored DNA already has been used to settle inheritance disputes involving paternity questions with absolute certainty.
Some medical experts, however, see limited value at best in DNA storage services.
"This is not going to be of any great utility for a long time," said Dr. Greg Grabowski, director of human genetics at Children's Hospital Medical Center.
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A NEW LIFE THROUGH DNA?
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With all the advances in genetics, from cloning sheep to switching DNA inside embryonic cells, could DNA storage give the dead a shot at coming back to life someday?
Not likely.
"All the scientists I've talked to say you couldn't do that with DNA alone," said John DePhillipo, chairman of GeneLink.
Just trying to do it runs into deep religious and ethical questions. Meanwhile, the deed would require several dramatic leaps of science. For example, nobody knows how to transfer the memories of a dead person to a clone - especially by using just a lock of hair or a few drops of frozen blood.
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The concept of DNA storage is relatively new. A New Jersey company called GeneLink has been doing business in several states since 1996. It charges $275 to collect samples through funeral homes and store them in freezers at the University of North Texas Science Center in Fort Worth.
The Cincinnati company was formed a month ago by Bernie Naegele, director of Naegele Kleb & Ihlendorf Funeral Home in Norwood, and his son-in-law, Dr. Harding. Together they have been promoting their service in Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton and other Ohio cities. The company stores DNA samples for at least 25 years. The samples are divided and stored in two locations, at the funeral home and at Dr. Harding's lab.
Both companies say they go to great lengths to protect privacy. Neither allows any insurance or government access to the DNA samples. Neither sells its data, even in anonymous form. Only authorized next-of-kin can allow a sample to be checked - a service that costs extra.
DNA Analysis claims to go a step beyond GeneLink by offering a genetic "profile" in addition to storage services. The profile can be used later to verify the authenticity of the stored sample, should it be opened for analysis.
Some Cincinnati funeral directors already have signed up with DNA Analysis, including Rebold Funeral Home in Cheviot.
"This is something positive the funeral industry can do for the medical field," Rebold funeral director Mike Sexton said. For most people, it would be years if ever before enough family members had DNA stored to trace a disease in the family. In the meantime, direct genetic testing already is available for an increasing number of diseases.
"You can already test for things like Huntington's disease. You don't need to know if grandma had it to find out whether you have it," Dr. Grabowski said.
