Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Genotype Matters Not!

I can't believe I am actually going to say that President GeeDubya did something good; but here goes.
The president signed into law legislation protecting those with imperfect genes from discrimination.
GINA (Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act,) protects those people who utilize genetic testing to ascertain if they have certain genetic abnormalities. This law protects those individuals from insurance companies denying these people coverage.

I don't think the law protects these people from price-gouging, but I guess it is a start....
However, the law does protect people from premium increases or different premiums based on the genetic info people voluntarily find out.

Genetics and scientific advances in general pose so many ethical and financial questions for our society to grapple with now and in the future. These will be difficult questions to answer and no doubt we will answer lots of them wrong initially.
We just gotta keep learning...
Just because we can, does not always mean we should.

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