Genetic Nondiscrimination - Bill of Health

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Legislative Success in FL Suggests Time is Ripe for Further Genetic Nondiscrimination Protections

December 17, 2020December 16, 2020 Genetics in Medicine Leave a comment

By Anna C F Lewis and Anya E R Prince

On July 1, a law banning the use of genetic information by life, long-term care, and disability income insurers took effect in Florida.

Florida’s success marks a potential turning point of bipartisan appeal for this issue.

The passage of this law, which we explore in a recent article published in Genetics in Medicine, the official journal of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG), was propelled by a campaign that argued that an individual’s DNA should not be weaponized against them, that affordable insurance shouldn’t just be for the genetic elite, and that an individual should be able to keep their genetic data private.

Uncertainty and Immutability: Arguments for Genetic Nondiscrimination

January 9, 2020January 7, 2020 Kaitlyn Dowling Leave a comment

By Kaitlyn Dowling, based on research by the Cyberlaw Clinic at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society

In a year-long series on Bill of Health, we’ll be exploring the legal scholarship on genetic non- discrimination. We’ll talk more about GINA and state laws protecting citizens from genetic discrimination. We hope these posts help shed light on this complex and ever-more-relevant area for legal scholars, policymakers, and the public at large. Read the previous posts in the series.

We’ve covered the history of genetic non-discrimination legislation and the potential risks of being discriminated against in housing and lending and education based on genetic data. Those risks are clear: there are many reasons why a bank, landlord, or school might want to take a person’s genetic information (and, thus, their potential future health) into account. Let’s take a deeper dive into two broad arguments in favor of strong privacy protections for genetic information and their consequences.

Uncertainty

A common policy argument in favor of genetic non-discrimination legislation is that genetic discrimination is unjust because the outcomes implicated by one’s genes may never manifest. In 2001, President George W. Bush stated that “[g]enetic discrimination is unfair to workers and their families. It is unjustified – among other reasons, because it involves little more than medical speculation. A genetic predisposition toward cancer or heart disease does not mean the condition will develop.” Read More

Genetic Discrimination in Education: What’s the Risk?

September 23, 2019September 20, 2019 Kaitlyn Dowling 2 Comments

By Kaitlyn Dowling, based on research by the Cyberlaw Clinic at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society

In a new, year-long series on Bill of Health, we’ll be exploring the legal scholarship on genetic non-discrimination. We’ll talk more about GINA and state laws protecting citizens from genetic discrimination. We hope these posts help shed light on this complex and ever-more-relevant area for legal scholars, policymakers, and the public at large.

As discussed in our last post, most states regulate the use of genetic information in some way, although usually only in employment and insurance. Comparatively few states have protections against genetic discrimination in other contexts. Today, we’re exploring education protections in eight states: California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia.

In comparison with other genetic non-discrimination protections, most states have not acted to implement protections in the education context. California, West Virginia, and Washington are the only states out of the eight surveyed with these types of protections.