Cultural Analysis of "Gene Map Becomes A Luxury Item"

Below, I analyze the article, "Gene Map Becomes A Luxury Item," and its cultural impact and social influences.

Cornell University. "Students in the Neurology Lab at Cornell University" 1910
Public Domain

The main argument of this article addresses is the emergence of a market where the wealthy are paying close to $400,000 to have their entire genome mapped, and whether such businesses are promoting genetic elitism.

Some key words I found throughout this article included "Bentley", "Disease", and "Elitism." The author strategically repeated these words to reinforce his thesis. He uses "Bentley" to construct a comparison between the expense of gene mapping and luxury cars, and to manipulate an existing stereotype (only the rich own Bentley cars) by coupling it with genome mapping. The author uses "disease" and "elitism" to present reasoning behind the influx in the demand for personal gene maps. The thesis is simple, advancements in gene sequencing technology has allowed dozens of biotech firms to form throughout Europe and Asia; consequently, contributing to millionaires investing in the mapping of their DNA codes. This increase in business raises the issue if only the wealthy are entitled to a personalized healthcare, or if such business will eventually make the technology available to the general masses. The targeted audience  includes the lower/middle classes of the American public, primarily the more educated of society; such as individuals in business or civil services. This audience is most likely more concerned with the issue of affordable healthcare and biotech services.