Earlier today, in the latest installment of the What ELSI is New? series, Daniel MacArthur asked a question that has cropped up repeatedly in recent weeks and months as part of the broader discourse surrounding genetic research and commerce: what rights should individuals have to gain access to their personal genetic or genomic data?

MacArthur’s position – that research participants should generally be provided with complete access to their own genetic data upon request – is one that continues to remain a minority position. It finds support in research initiatives such as the Personal Genome Project (PGP) and (to a lesser extent) the Coriell Personalized Medicine Collaborative (CPMC), but returning research results has generally been eschewed by other large-scale genetic research projects, including Kaiser Permanente’s recently announced Research Program on Genes, Environment, & Health (RPGEH).

Last month, the Genomics Law Report examined the RPGEH and its reluctance to return genetic data to a participant population that is expected to quickly grow to 100,000