I am very seriously having trouble not thinking about the bill that would allow employers to put employees through a genetics test. I am having trouble seeing the benefits of such a bill. I am having trouble not seeing it as a selfish allowance. I am having trouble not seeing it as literal eugenics.
You’re having trouble because there is no benefit to employees. It will only be for the benefit of employers, and will allow them to discriminate. It’s terrifying…
I’ve been reading lots of articles and trying to get some perspective on it. A spokesperson for HR 1313 said that knowing a person’s genetic history would allow for preventative measures and eventually lower the cost of insurance.
And I can sort of see that.
BUT.
That is a conversation that I should have voluntarily, with my doctor, under no penalty, and kept private. It should not be permissible to sell it, and I should not have to incur a 30% fine for not participating in a ‘wellness activity’ with an unqualified person who may or may not use this information against me.
Healthcare should be affordable to everyone, regardless of their predictive health and the health of their families.
Removing the anonymity of genetic information has acutely horrifying implications.
I know I’m kind of preaching to the choir right now, but like… I can’t get it out of my head. I shouldn’t read this stuff before I go to sleep.
hello naughty children its GATTACA time
More than that, it could also be an attempt to “catch” trans people. And I know it’s going to have unexpected results…
See, once upon a time, the people running the Olympics thought they could catch cheats by checking the competitors’ chromosomes. IDK why. Maybe they thought some men were sneaking into the women’s contests so they could win gold medals. Whatever.
In order to not appear like sexist shots, they tested EVERY competitor. And they were all set to land like a ton of bricks on any cheats…
BUT…
The results showed quite a surprising amount of MALE competitors had female chromosomes.
So the whole idea was trashed in short order.
(This story comes second hand from MeMum and may be inaccurate)
Soundarajan, a female runner who was denied entry to the Olympics because of her Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (which she was unaware of) failed the required genetics testing. Mandatory genetics testing has been removed from the requirements as of 2004, but still is practiced in the event that a competitor is being investigated for a fraudulent claim.
Intentionally misrepresenting your sex or gender as a means to cheat in sports has happened before. It is not a common method because the risk is very high. It is also… rarely successful in terms of having ‘easier competition.’
The idea that this bill would effectively out trans and intersex persons at the workplace is just one of the major issues that I have with it.
There is the very obvious problem of racial bias and the prevalence of white supremacy in our country. I should not need to expound upon why I have a problem with that.
But there is also the major issue of the bill’s claimed purpose: to find congenital conditions and enact ‘preventative measures.’ There are lots of people in the work force who are on the Autism spectrum, who have Down’s Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy… who are capable of working with their symptoms and do their jobs. These are also a target for discrimination and there are employers who are more than willing to justify it.
If the only benefit to come from this bill is that companies would be able to save more money, then I am unable to find any good in this bill.
For a good summary, see the Washington Post’s article (linked below, I’m on mobile). This would be straight up breaking the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. This is absolutely ridiculous, and yet another extreme breach of our privacy.
The sponsor of the bill is NC Rep- Virginia Foxx:
2262 Rayburn House Office Building
(202) 225-2071Co-sponsor- MI Rep Tim Walberg (Website)
Washington, D.C. Office
2436 Rayburn HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: (202) 225-6276
Fax: (202) 225-6281
Hours: Monday-Friday 9:00AM-5:30PMJackson Office
401 W. Michigan Ave.
Jackson, MI 49201
Phone: (517) 780-9075
Fax: (517) 780-9081
Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 9:00AM-5:00PM
Wednesday 9:00AM-6:00PMCo-Sponsor- NY Rep Elise M Stefanik
Co-Sponsor- MI Rep Paul Mitchell
I have a lot of personal feelings about this requirement. There’s all the above: the threat of eugenics and outing of trans people that scares the crap out of me, and then there’s the fact that it affects me personally in a way I haven’t seen mentioned here yet.
I’m adopted. I was adopted in the age when adoptions were closed. I know nothing about my genetic history. Part of being adopted for me has been to consciously choose not to look into my biological family, at all. That door is closed. It’s complicated and it’s messy and I have conflicted feelings about it, but it’s been my choice to keep that door closed. That choice is a large part of something that defines me. Something like this, then, takes that choice away from me. I no longer have control over something that makes me who I am.
And the fact is, there’s very little pay off for forcing me, or anyone else, to comply with something this invasive. I work in the medical field, but I’m not a geneticist. Maybe there’s a tumblr geneticist who can put me straight. But here’s what I know:
Medical test results are most often only helpful in explaining what is going on medically when they are interpreted IN CONTEXT, as part of a full diagnostic picture. Why? Because our science is limited. We generally only test someone’s genes if there’s a reason to, if someone in their family has a condition or they’re having symptoms that need explaining and treatment. We have a certain amount of research that tells us that people with a particular medical condition tend have certain genes, but that doesn’t mean that we know that people who have those particular genes will express the medical condition. As far as I know, we don’t have large scale studies that establish the usefulness of indiscriminate genetic testing as something to predict risk for medical conditions in the population at large.
So, because of that, then, we can’t say that the benefits to society outweigh the violation of an individual’s choice, much less share potentially damaging information with people who have power over us.
Hearseeno 