{"id":30891,"date":"2018-10-27T11:20:55","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T05:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=30891"},"modified":"2018-10-27T11:20:55","modified_gmt":"2018-10-27T05:50:55","slug":"staying-ahead-of-the-double-helix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/staying-ahead-of-the-double-helix\/","title":{"rendered":"Staying ahead of the double helix"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-opinion\/staying-ahead-of-the-double-helix\/article22914028.ece\"><b>Staying ahead of the double helix<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Delhi High Court recently ruled against discrimination in health insurance by United India Insurance Company involving a person with a heart condition which was perceived to be a genetic disorder.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Court ruling:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The court held, \u201cDiscrimination in health insurance against individuals based on their genetic disposition or genetic heritage, in the absence of appropriate genetic testing and laying down of intelligible differentia, is unconstitutional.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Genetic discrimination (GD):<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Genetic discrimination (GD) is understood to be differential treatment of those not showing symptoms but who are nevertheless treated differently on the basis of any real or assumed genetic characteristics.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Eugenics:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There were robust policies of eugenics in the U.S. in the 1900s.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These led to laws in many States that made sterilisation compulsory for those who expressed a range of conditions believed to be inherited.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Such conditions covered those with disability, who were poor, had mental health problems, were promiscuous, and were dwarfs, and so on.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eugenics was also practiced in many countries in Europe, not just in Nazi Germany.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nordic countries, for example, passed eugenics laws in the 1930s and some of those stayed in the books until the 1970s.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>American precedent<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the U.S., researchers working with the Council for Responsible Genetics in Cambridge, Massachusetts recorded hundreds of cases of misuse of genetic information.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> There are many examples of employers and insurers using genetic information to engage in discriminatory policies.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the U.S., the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) was signed into law in 2008.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GINA provides strong protection against access to genetic information and genetic discrimination in the context of health insurance and employment.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GINA prohibits insurers from \u201crequesting or requiring\u201d genetic tests from an individual or members of the person\u2019s family, or using genetic information to determine eligibility or establish premiums.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It also prohibits employers from \u201crequesting or requiring\u201d genetic information for hiring or promotional decisions, or when determining eligibility for training programmes.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Genetic Non-Discrimination Act:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Council of Europe has adopted a set of recommendations on the use of genetic information for the purpose of insurance.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Canada\u2019s recent <\/span><b>Genetic Non-Discrimination Act<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> makes it illegal for insurers or employers to request DNA testing or results.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is reported that insurers in the U.K. are currently under a voluntary moratorium agreed upon between the Association of British Insurers and the government until 2019.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Based on this agreement, results from genetic tests are not to be used for health or life insurance except for Huntington\u2019s disease, which is dominantly inherited with a high penetrance.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>A complex future<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The situation is likely to get worse as people become more accepting of predictive genetic tests and insurance companies insist on them.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are also serious concerns related to the protection and privacy of medical and genetic data.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Way ahead:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India needs a law that prevents genetic discrimination.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this era of rampant genetic testing, there is \u00a0need to prevent discrimination and uphold \u201cequal treatment under the law\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There should therefore be no discrimination based on genetic information. Insurance is developed from pooling risks.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Universal health care can therefore be a viable solution.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Staying ahead of the double helix Context: The Delhi High Court recently ruled against discrimination in health insurance by United India Insurance Company involving a person with a heart condition which was perceived to be a genetic disorder. Court ruling: \u00a0The court held, \u201cDiscrimination in health insurance against individuals based on their genetic disposition or&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/staying-ahead-of-the-double-helix\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Staying ahead of the double helix<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}