People are worried about being rejected for a job, because of their genetic information. No company should have the right to hire, fire or judge people based on their genetic background. Genetic discrimination is when people are treated unfairly because of the differences in their DNA and their chance of getting a disease. A number of laws have passed that have protected people under the law. For example, GINA, which protects people from genetic discrimination from employers and health insurance providers. Even though laws have been passed to help protect people from genetic discrimination, companies have broken the law, paid a penalty and were free to go. The laws that are too be passed must be hard on the employer and act as some kind of
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Also the company threatened to terminate a contract of one worker who refused to get himself tested. This shows that companies violated the law and that there should be stricter laws than just paying the penalty. This wasn’t the only case linked to genetic discrimination; other cases have been reported where the insurance companies have stopped covering healthcare for patients because they were diagnosed with a genetic disease. The council for responsible genetics wrote “Seven-year-old Danny is in perfect health, but a genetic tests reveals that he has a gene predisposing him to a heart disorder. Even though he takes medication that lowers his risk of a heart attack, he is denied health insurance. His insurance company argues that since his gene has been present since birth, this qualifies as a pre-existing medical condition.” Another case reported by the council of responsible genetics was “Kim is a social worker with a large human services agency. During a staff workshop on caring for people with chronic illnesses, Kim mentions that she was the primary caretaker for her mother who died of Huntington’s disease. Kim herself has a 50% chance of developing this fatal genetic condition. One week …show more content…
The verge stated “What’s even more striking, however, is that 30 percent of participants said that they became more worried about genetic discrimination after reading about GINA.” Which means that people were actually worried that this is becoming a problem. The US government needs to educate its people on the rights of its people and how they can get justice. People are afraid to get genetically tested and have that data listed on their medical record because they think, that it might affect their career and that will judge them. GINA does not cover life insurance, so that means that people can be refused a policy, if the company requests a genetic testing to be done. However, at this rate of advancements in the science industry, “genetic discrimination” might not exist, because every treatment will be gene based and there is a chance that none of us will have mutated genes. However, the government needs to find a way to reassure the
Also the company threatened to terminate a contract of one worker who refused to get himself tested. This shows that companies violated the law and that there should be stricter laws than just paying the penalty. This wasn’t the only case linked to genetic discrimination; other cases have been reported where the insurance companies have stopped covering healthcare for patients because they were diagnosed with a genetic disease. The council for responsible genetics wrote “Seven-year-old Danny is in perfect health, but a genetic tests reveals that he has a gene predisposing him to a heart disorder. Even though he takes medication that lowers his risk of a heart attack, he is denied health insurance. His insurance company argues that since his gene has been present since birth, this qualifies as a pre-existing medical condition.” Another case reported by the council of responsible genetics was “Kim is a social worker with a large human services agency. During a staff workshop on caring for people with chronic illnesses, Kim mentions that she was the primary caretaker for her mother who died of Huntington’s disease. Kim herself has a 50% chance of developing this fatal genetic condition. One week …show more content…
The verge stated “What’s even more striking, however, is that 30 percent of participants said that they became more worried about genetic discrimination after reading about GINA.” Which means that people were actually worried that this is becoming a problem. The US government needs to educate its people on the rights of its people and how they can get justice. People are afraid to get genetically tested and have that data listed on their medical record because they think, that it might affect their career and that will judge them. GINA does not cover life insurance, so that means that people can be refused a policy, if the company requests a genetic testing to be done. However, at this rate of advancements in the science industry, “genetic discrimination” might not exist, because every treatment will be gene based and there is a chance that none of us will have mutated genes. However, the government needs to find a way to reassure the