Chief Prognosticator

Should Your Genome be Private?

The first complete mapping of the Human Genome was done by, well, who else, The Human Genome Project between 1990 and 2003. Since then additional projects have been executed in the private and public sector including one by the company Celera Genomics. They mapped DNA from five different people including their own lead scientist Craig Venter. Just a few weeks ago (September 4th, 2007), Craig Venter published his complete DNA sequence for the world to see and examine. His is the first genome of a single individual released.

This raises some very tricky implications of human genomes. What sort of privacy laws need to be in place? Or what about genetic discrimination. Think about it — we are becoming more able to determine future susceptibility to diseases based on genetic information. What if people started being discriminated against according to genetic abnormalities or certain proclivities? Yeah, the future is here and I don’t want it to be like GATTACA.

There is some legislation currently being developped for this but it’s not yet approved. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) would prohibit health insurance companies from discriminating for coverage when the reason is only based on a genetic predispotion. The GINA would also prevent similar discrimination in the workplace against companies who would want to fire someone based on an increased insurance liablity. GINA passed the United States House of Representatives as H.R. 493 on 25 April 2007 (by a vote of 420 to 3) but is stuck in the United States Senate.

Image: (Source Wikipedia, cGNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2