Whistleblower protection laws are growing in strength and number across the globe. Whistleblowing workers enjoy stronger legal rights than ever before. But there are dangers. Laws can be undermined by powerful employers with deep pockets intent on exploiting loopholes to suppress public whistleblowing. Lawfare is one such tactic. Whistleblowers can find themselves exposed, and in extreme cases, prosecuted for speaking up. The high-profile story of Theranos’s Erika Cheung illustrates this chapter. As a twenty-three-year-old graduate, Erika blew the whistle on the most famous white-collar crime of recent years. After whistleblowing, she was aggressively pursued by her former employer’s legal counsel: a nationally renowned firm. Along with other whistleblowers, Erika’s testimony would prove pivotal in convicting senior executives. This chapter introduces the new world of whistleblower reprisal, including lawfare tactics ranging from NDAs to SLAPPs and over-reaching trade secrets laws. It points to the vulnerability faced by individual whistleblowers whose rights to protection ‘on paper’ offer scant help in practice. It shows how good lawyers are important, but in the end, they are often not enough.

In the years following FDA approval of direct-to-consumer, genetic-health-risk/DTCGHR testing, millions of people in the US have sent their DNA to companies to receive personal genome health risk information without physician or other learned medical professional involvement. In Personal Genome Medicine, Michael J. Malinowski examines the ethical, legal, and social implications of this development. Drawing from the past and present of medicine in the US, Malinowski applies law, policy, public and private sector practices, and governing norms to analyze the commercial personal genome sequencing and testing sectors and to assess their impact on the future of US medicine. Written in relatable and accessible language, the book also proposes regulatory reforms for government and medical professionals that will enable technological advancements while maintaining personal and public health standards.