In 2008, Congress passed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act to prevent employers and insurance companies from discriminating against Americans based on their medical records.
Now a House committee is taking steps to remove GINAs protections.
On March 8, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce narrowly approved HR 1313, which could allow employers to require genetic testing as part of a workplace wellness program. Employees could face financial penalties if they refused.
The idea behind this is to make employees healthier and reduce health care costs for companies. But medical ethicists argue that this is not only unethical, its scientifically incoherent. Simply put, an employer wouldnt be able to glean anything particularly useful from commercially available genetic testing.
Theres this notion that somehow we could give you a genetic test and find out your risk factors and control them or monitor them,Arthur Caplan, the founding director of New York Universitys Division of Medical Ethics told The Huffington Post.Thats science that isnt here yet.
Dr. Lainie Ross, professor of clinical medical ethics at the University of Chicago Medicine, said,Were advancing in our understanding of genetics, but were nowhere near being able to say, Because you have this gene, you definitely should take this medicine or not.
Even Dr. Tom Price, the former orthopedic surgeon and Affordable Care Act opponent who now heads the Department of Health and Human Services, expressed reservations about HR 1313.
Im not familiar with the bill, but it sounds like there would be some significant concerns about it, Price said Sunday on Meet the Press. If the departments asked to evaluate it, or if its coming through the department, well be glad to take a look at it.
In 2015, the Food and Drug Administration cautioned that some laboratory tests could harm patients because they led to false diagnoses and unnecessary treatments (the agency later withdrew its regulatory proposalsand left lab test regulation up to President Donald Trumps FDA commissioner and Congress).
In fact, in a study in which researchers gave nine labs a genetic variant and asked them to analyze it, the labs gave different answers 22 percent of the time.
Even if everyone agrees that a genetic variant can cause disease, the actual risk to an individual of developing that disease is not that clear, Heidi Rehm of Brigham and Womens Hospital told the STAT health news site. That risk depends on environmental factors as well as other genetic ones, but truthfully we dont know what those factors are.
Forced genetic testing could push highly personal, sensitive and potentially inaccurate informationon individuals who may not want to know if they have specific health risks, particularly if they carry genetic mutations for serious or incurable conditions.
Genetics is based on probabilities, not certainties. So, although a test may find that you have an increased risk of breast cancer, to use one example, that does not mean you are certain to get the disease.
It maypush people into seeking out untested treatments or treatments that they really dont need because they come from a low-risk family, Ross said. Its not good medical practice.
Then theres the possibility that employers and insurance companies could use genetic information (which might not even accurately represent disease risk) to discriminate against employees and customers. Insurance companies could potentially charge people who show a risk for certain genetic conditions higher premiums, and unscrupulous employers would have the ability to make hiring and firing decisions based on employee health.
Theres also the dicey question of which genes employers and insurance companies might choose to look at.
Cherry-picking who gets insurance could potentially stigmatize one group of people.
We all have health risks. Were all going to die, Ross said. This is all about risk, and we want to share the risk.
Workplace wellness programs are popular (about half of U.S. companies with 50 or more employees had workplace wellness programs in place, according to a 2013 report from the nonpartisan Rand Corp. think tank), but theres not much evidence that such programs improve employee health.
Most of the studies that do exist fail to prove causation, show only short-term effects or are written by the wellness industry,according to The New York Times. The more rigorous studies are more likely to show that wellness programs neither save money nor improve employee health.
Thats not to say health and wellness shouldnt be employer priorities. But workplace wellness programs that incentivize and penalize employees based on their health are fundamentally unethical, according to Caplan.
The notion that your boss is in the best position to monitor your health is morally tenuous, he said. For example, your boss doesnt care if your job is stressing you out. Theyre not going to fix that. Theyre just going to tell you to lose weight.
If your boss really cares about your health, then they can build a gym and incentivize you to go down there when they give you that extra 30-minute break.
This reporting is brought to you by HuffPosts health and science platform, The Scope. Like us onFacebookandTwitterand tell us your story:scopestories@huffingtonpost.com.
See the original post:
Workplace Genetic Testing Isn't Just Unethical, It's Scientifically Unsound - Huffington Post
- Gene Therapy for Genetic Disease: The Long and Winding Road [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 10th, 2011]
- Gene Doping: Super Athletes in 2008 Beijing Olympics - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 14th, 2011]
- The 3 Rs of DNA: Molecules to Medicine - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 15th, 2011]
- BIT 3.1 Entrez Gene - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 15th, 2011]
- Professor Ian Everall - Gene expression in schizophrenia - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 16th, 2011]
- Gene Therapy Promising Treatment (Part 2 of 4) - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 16th, 2011]
- Cancer Research @ NC State's Centennial Biomedical Campus - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 16th, 2011]
- Gene Therapy Promising Treatment (Part 1 of 1) - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 19th, 2011]
- HiTech_U3L3_Biotech in Medicine - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 19th, 2011]
- Sri Sathya Sai Medical Camps Worldwide - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 20th, 2011]
- Dr. Joseph M. DeSimone: 2008 Winner, $500000 Lemelson-MIT Prize - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 21st, 2011]
- Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Cancer Survivor Testimony - (Sanoviv Medical Institute) - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 22nd, 2011]
- Vaccines: Medicine for the Healthy - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 24th, 2011]
- For Your Health - Health Care Informatics - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 24th, 2011]
- A Century of Stem Cells - Johns Hopkins Medicine - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 24th, 2011]
- Functional Repair of Human Donor Lung by IL-10 Gene Therapy (EX VIVO Lung) - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 25th, 2011]
- Science Talk: Vaccine Made With Synthetic Gene Protects Against Deadly Pneumonia - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 25th, 2011]
- Health Matters: Family Medicine - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 26th, 2011]
- Dr. Jeffrey Myers Explains Genetic Variations in Head and Neck Cancer - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- The Emerging Network of Data for Understanding the Interactions of Genes and Drugs - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- Burzynski_ Cancer Is Serious Business Part 4/8. wmv - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- Pt2: Do you understand the new genetics? Maybe you don't have that gene! - Andrew Shelling - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- Alien Genetic Takeover of Humanity! - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- Burzynski | 2-DVD Set Extended Edition Montage Preview of New Material | Cancer Is Serious Business - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- Genes, Genomes and the Future of Medicine - Richard Lifton, MD, Ph.D. - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- Burzynski The Movie ~ Cancer Is Serious Business ~ High Quality - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- Designing Life for Mars Colonization (Brainstorm Ep20) - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- Dedication Event: Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- DR. Burzynski The Movie - Cancer Is Serious Business (PT.1) - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- burzy - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 28th, 2011]
- Alien Genetic Takeover: The End of Humanity - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 28th, 2011]
- Burzynski_ Cancer Is Serious Business Part 1/8 .wmv - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 28th, 2011]
- Mike Schmidt - ECMO Patient - Penn State Hershey Medical Center - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 28th, 2011]
- Disrupting the HIV Virus (Brainstorm Ep24) - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 28th, 2011]
- Diagnosis and Treatment of Hepatorenal Syndrome - Moving Targets? - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 28th, 2011]
- Big Bucks, Big Pharma: Marketing Disease and Pushing Drugs - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 28th, 2011]
- Roles of RNA in Gene Regulation - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 28th, 2011]
- Diatom PCR Colony Screen - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 28th, 2011]
- Kleanthis G. Xanthopoulos, Ph.D., CEO, Regulus, talking on the impact of microRNA medicines - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 28th, 2011]
- Burzynski_ Cancer Is Serious Business Part 2/8 .wmv - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 28th, 2011]
- Sickle Cell Anemia: Stem Cell Gene Therapy - A Patient's Perspective - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 29th, 2011]
- Gene-based lung cancer treatment video - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 29th, 2011]
- HIV Resistant Genes...Rhesus Negative, Excess PK [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 29th, 2011]
- Futures in Biotech 83: Bioinformatics: Essential Gene names Skewed in a Network of Blame - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 29th, 2011]
- Keeping Blood Young, Fighting Sickle Cells (Brainstorm Ep28 - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 31st, 2011]
- News@Northwestern - NUGENE - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 31st, 2011]
- UK Medical Student Mary Burchett's Research is Personal - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 31st, 2011]
- Cannabis 4 Crohn's: 2 Years As Medical Marijuana Patient, Dr Mind Bender [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2011]
- Medical Haptical Robot for the Eye - Eye-Rhas, - TU Eindhoven - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2011]
- The Ghost in Your Genes - Horizon - BBC - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 9th, 2011]
- The Ghost in Your Genes - BBC Horizon - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 13th, 2011]
- Burzynski: Cancer Is Serious Business (Trailer) - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 16th, 2011]
- Genes, Ancestry, and Personalized Medicine with Dr. Michael Kane - Interview Part 1.mp4 - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 25th, 2011]
- The Suicide Gene - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 29th, 2011]
- Ard Louis on Dawkins and Selfish Genes - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 30th, 2011]
- TEDxLex - Dr. Alicia L. Bertone - Gene Jockeying for a Win in Regenerative Medicine.mp4 - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 3rd, 2011]
- Introduction to Gene Network - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 7th, 2011]
- The demise of a dogma. The deaf somatic gene listens - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 7th, 2011]
- Future of health care, hospitals, medicine and wellbeing - by Dr Patrick Dixon - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 8th, 2011]
- Electro-Medicine : Biological Physics : Neurological Research Advancements - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 12th, 2011]
- Haemophilia gene therapy breakthrough - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 15th, 2011]
- Duke researchers: Gene discovery explains how fruit flies retreat from heat - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 16th, 2011]
- Focus on Nikolaus Rajewsky - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 18th, 2011]
- Deadly Monopolies Medical Ethicist Harriet Washington on How Firms are Taking Over Life Itself - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 23rd, 2011]
- Open fetal surgery: past, present and future - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 23rd, 2011]
- The Human Genome and Individualized Medicine - David Valle, MD - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2012]
- Environmental Contributors to Autism Spectrum Disorders - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 20th, 2012]
- When Cancer Runs in the Family - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 20th, 2012]
- Genome Enabled Electronic Medical Record (GenE EMR) - William Knaus - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 22nd, 2012]
- Nuvigil withdrawal - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 23rd, 2012]
- Cancer Cure Documentary - Dr. Burzynski Antineoplaston Therapy - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 26th, 2012]
- Next Generation Cancer Gene Sequencing for Clinically Actionable Mutations - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 26th, 2012]
- Fibrocell Science, Inc. Announces Recognition for LAVIV™ (azficel-T) at The 2012 Cell & Gene Therapy Forum, Washington ... [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 31st, 2012]
- Gene Mutation Linked to Inappropriate Lipid Buildup in Liver [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 1st, 2012]
- 'Goldilocks' gene could determine best treatment for tuberculosis patients [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 3rd, 2012]
- James Wilson, MD, Ph.D., on Gene Therapy as a Disruptive Technology - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 3rd, 2012]
- 'Goldilocks' gene used to find drug treatment that is 'just right' for TB patients [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 4th, 2012]
- Gene therapy, a totally Italian success - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 4th, 2012]
- Electro-Medicine : Neurons function revealed - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 4th, 2012]
- Gene mutation discovery sparks hope for effective endometriosis screening [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2012]