Genetic Discrimination Means the Choice Between Life and Life Insurance
By Shimon Koffler Fogel and Bev Heim-Myers,
Huffington Post [Canada]
| 12. 12. 2014
Untitled Document
Protecting members of our society from discrimination based on the colour of their skin, ethnicity, or ancestry is a fundamental Canadian value. Unfortunately, Canadians across the country currently face real as well as potential future discrimination based on their DNA. Genetic discrimination is a reality in Canada, with out-dated laws enabling insurance companies and employers to target individuals and families based on the results of genetic testing.
To date, science has outpaced legislation in Canada, despite broad, multi-partisan consensus supporting action to stop genetic discrimination. Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged to "prevent employers and insurance companies from discriminating against Canadians on the basis of genetic testing" in the last Speech from the Throne; an NDP Private Member's Bill has been introduced in the House of Commons to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to prohibit genetic discrimination; and the Canadian Coalition for Genetic Fairness testified this week at the Senate human rights committee regarding Liberal Senator James Cowan's Bill S-201: An Act to Prohibit and Prevent Genetic Discrimination.
In the early 1990s when the Global Genome...
Related Articles
By Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic | 03.18.2024
People are discovering the truth about their biological parents with DNA—and learning that incest is far more common than many think.
When Steve Edsel was a boy, his adoptive parents kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings in their bedroom closet...
By Antonio Regalado, MIT Technology Review | 03.20.2024
There is a new most expensive drug ever—a gene therapy that costs as much as a Brooklyn brownstone or a Miami mansion, and more than the average person will earn in a lifetime.
Lenmeldy is a gene treatment for metachromatic...
By Carl Zimmer, The New York Times | 03.10.2024
In 1889, a French doctor named Francois-Gilbert Viault climbed down from a mountain in the Andes, drew blood from his arm and inspected it under a microscope. Dr. Viault’s red blood cells, which ferry oxygen, had surged 42 percent. He...
By Nick Paul Taylor, BioSpace | 03.14.2024
A U.K. watchdog balked at the cost-effectiveness of Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ CRISPR-based sickle cell disease therapy Thursday, recommending against funding the treatment unless uncertainties can be cleared up satisfactorily.
The U.K. became the first country to authorize Vertex’s Casgevy (exagamglogene...