SCORE ONE FOR THE PEOPLE
A Victory For Workers: New Law Bans Employers From Requiring Genetic Testing
AS THE NATION GRAPPLES WITH THE OVERWHELMING TASK OF OVERHAULING A FLAWED HEALTH CARE SYSTEM, there is at least one victory for Americans this week.
After more than a decade spent languishing in Congress, a new law goes into effect Nov. 21st prohibiting employers from using genetic testing in decisions regarding hiring, firing or promotions.
"There's an absolute ban on the use of genetic information to make any kind of decision about employment," Christopher Kuczynski of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission told the New York Times.
The passing of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act was considered critical to the further development of genetic testing for "personalized medicine." For good reason, many Americans have avoided testing out of fear that results would be used against them by health insurance companies and employers. The new law prohibits employers' and insurance companies from overtly seeking employees' genetic information.
The next frontier in genetics law that legislators and jurists must address is whether organizations and individual researchers can patent genetic sequences from individuals' DNA. It will be years before that issue is resolved, but stay tuned.
