Friday, April 25, 2008

GENETIC BIAS LAW WILL NOT PROTECT YOU

Genetic Bias Law Does Not Prevent Discrimination

Just as discrimination against race and gender still occur despite enactment of laws to protect us, the new genetic bias law will not protect you from discrimination. If your employer or insurance company discriminates against you due to genetic profiling, it will be YOUR responsibility to provide evidence to prove this. Not only will this be legally difficult to almost impossible to do, but also extremely costly. Furthermore, the legal system does not provide a quick and easy remedy from discrimination. It will take several years if not a decade to get legal remedy from such discrimination. Unfortunately, if you are ill, you will need immediate help, not help 10 years later. This genetic bias law is not a reasonable protective measure to someone who is ill and has been discriminated against from genetic testing.

Therefore, be extremely cautious about providing genetic information to anyone, even to your doctor unless you are absolutely certain it will help you. Do not be fooled. The medical industry’s priorities are about making money and pushing research agendas forward rather than prioritizing the importance of your health and wellbeing. This new genetic bias law will not protect you.

4 comments:

  1. Makes you wonder?
    My question is that if our government has implemented a law against genetic information discrimination, why didn’t they implement a law against any and all health information discrimination? Does this make sense? Beware! The answer is that this law was passed primarily to promote genetic testing and not to better our healthcare system or to protect you. This law will not prevent insurance companies from raising your rates or denying you health coverage after finding out that you have a genetic predisposed illness. This law only provides you the right to sue which is not adequate protection.

    wsbam

    ReplyDelete
  2. This law gives the medical and scientific industry more leeway to experiment with your blood through genetic testing while the patients still pays, still suffers and still has no adequate protection against discrimination.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Reply to anonymous: The scientific community makes money off genetic testing through discoveries using your blood and subsequently filing of patents. Patenting genetic discoveries which are pertinent to healthcare makes the prices of our medical care to ski-rocket. Yes, this law appears to be more favorable to the scientific/medical industry for genetic research and development than to protect patient’s genetic identity against discrimination.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Our healthcare system is a profit driven system. Until we fix that problem, companies and insurance industries will always do anything they can to make a buck. This new “genetic bias law” falsely leads people into taking genetic testing without providing them an adequate avenue of protection against discrimination. Think carefully before you give blood for genetic testing.

    ReplyDelete

POST COMMENT: