Greek newborns' DNA is no longer safe
20 May 2025
Tucked away from any public or political limelight, the Greek health ministry quietly made a deal. What seems like the beginning of a Black Mirror episode is reality: the deal allows two private companies, RealGenix (the Greek subsidiary of the American company Plumcare) and Beginnings, access to the DNA of 100,000 newborns by 2029 through genome sequencing. The agreement came to light before it could be implemented, thanks to an investigation by Reporters United and EFSYN.
A conventional health test on a newborn takes a blood sample to detect possible genetic diseases. Genome sequencing, on the other hand, samples the newborn’s entire DNA. While promising to detect even more diseases in theory, it remains largely experimental and, more importantly, reveals lifelong personal and hereditary health data to these companies.
The deal was passed without informing the public nor consulting any relevant body. It bypassed the public Child Health Institute (which the government was required to consult beforehand under Greek law), ignored parental consent, lacked ethical and scientific approvals, and was never published on the government’s transparency platform.
Even more worrying, the deal includes a confidentiality clause between the two parties for any findings and grants “exclusive ownership” of the DNA data to the companies. As part of the agreement, the two firms pledged to raise €56 million from pharmaceutical and tech sponsors.
The deal would’ve stayed buried without investigative journalists, and it still hasn’t been reverted.
 | Nikos Goudis Genomic data is permanent - you can't change who you are as if it’s your Netflix password. Our DNA should never become private property without consent, especially in the hands of companies that could go bankrupt and sell it off, as is now happening with 23andMe in the U.S. The DNA testing company was sold on Monday to drugmaker Regeneron for $256 million, together with the DNA of its 15 million customers. Misuse of DNA data could mean anything from exploitation by insurance companies to job discrimination. While the EU treats genetic data as sensitive and calls for informed parental consent, it still lacks a unified regulation. Across Europe, genome screening must come with transparency, public and scientific oversight, and control over who profits from our children's bodies. |
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