Wired Science reports that our Dear Leader signed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) law today. Theoretically, you now can’t be denied a job or insurance based on the titillating secrets hiding within your DNA. I’m sure there will be plenty of creative ways around that within 10 years or so. Further,
“GINA’s not perfect: The law doesn’t specifically keep genetic information out of third-party hands. It also doesn’t apply to the military. (So actually, you still might be denied entrance to Gattaca based on a genetic test.) And some people say health insurance won’t ever be fair without a pricing structure that makes discrimination impossible.”
The GINA law is a good thing. A great thing, even. It’s good that they can’t say, “Hmmm, looks like you’ve got a 28% chance of having clogged arteries by the age of 45, so we’re not going to insure (or hire) you.” But there is no way in hell I’m ever going to have my genome sequenced and entered into some medical record that frankly, I have zero control over. Laws change, and corruption happens. Government and businesses work out ways to do and get what they want, not to mention the fact that data of all kinds is stolen and sold on a regular basis.
I’m not trying to sell tin foil hats here, folks, but in the case of genetic data we simply do not know what the world is going to be like within 20-50 years. No, I don’t think individuals are going to be secretly “targeted” in some way but I do think genetic information will just be another way that people will be grouped and categorized, probably right out in the open, and to some end that a lot of them will be unhappy about. Since we do not yet know what we will be able to learn from or do with the genome in the future, how could we possibly know how releasing or even (supposedly) securely storing your genetic data might come back to you in the future? There could even be some sort of disadvantage to your kids who aren’t even born yet. Just a thought.
On the “open genome” side of the aisle, there are a few adventurous people so far, like Craig Venter and George Church, who are happy to have their genomes published in the name of science. Better them than me, but I guess only time will tell whether my paranoia was a waste of neurotransmitters or not.
Filed under: biological science, genes, government, health, medicine, science, technology
These regulations are a good idea, but there still seems to be some holes in the new laws. For instance, health information is not the only thing you can get from your DNA:
http://dnatestingguides.com/2008/05/what-is-dna-testing/
For example with the wholesale collection of DNA the government, or any company that so wished, could compile a DNA fingerprint database or trace your ancestry.
It’s not clear how the new regulations would apply to this. Perhaps the best way to stop companies/governments abusing genetic information, is to not only protect the information, but not let them have it in the first place.
Exact-a-mundo.