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DNA tests could lead to insurance, employment problems
By Sue Mueller
Feb 25, 2008 - 9:58:40 AM

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MONDAY FEB 25, 2008 (Foodconsumer.org) -- The New York Times published a lengthy article on how genetic testing or DNA tests could affect one's prospect of health insurance and possible employment because of potential discrimination based on the genetic disposition for certain serious health consequences.

The point seems to be that genetic testing poses a real danger to the one who subjects himself to the test because it’s uncertain how the genetic information will be used against your health and employment.

On one hand, people need to get to know more of their genetic information to help diagnose and treat their condition.  On the other, the health insurance companies may deny issuing policies to them because of their hereditary diseases which would hamper their effect to maintain their health or prospective employers may not hire them for even a low-wage job.

There are basic four types of genetic testing people often do currently including carrier identification, prenatal diagnosis, newborn screening and genetic identification.  People should give it a thought because taking any genetic testing.

Carrier identification includes genetic tests indicated to examine if a couple whose families have a history of recessive genetic disorders would pass on their faulty genes to their children.  Three common tests include those for cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs disease and sickle-cell trait.

Prenatal diagnosis is meant to diagnose diseases in a fetus, which could potentially result in an abortion when a serious disease is certain enough to prompt the pregnant woman and her partner to decide to stop the pregnancy. Some potentially beneficial use of this type of genetic testing is early diagnosis of diseases such as Down syndrome so that parents may be prepared to meet the challenge.

Newborn screening is very common and often forced on parents in most of the 50 states if not all.  The intent of this type of genetic testing is to treat the diseases such as Phenylketonuria and congenital hypothyroidism early.

Late-onset disorders are diseases that develop later in life such as cancer and heart disease.  Genetic testing may indicate a susceptibility or predisposition for certain diseases such as Huntington's disease and breast cancer.

Identification of genetic information is another category of genetic testing used in legal cases involving paternity and in criminal investigation.

Some people may not think much of the privacy issue. But in fact, the testing laboratories often retain your genetic information with or without your notice. In certain cases the state law requires the lab to retain the DNA information for whatever purpose.  The banking of genetic information poses a risk in the same way as the credit card information is stored by a retailer.  You never know when your genetic information will be stolen and used against you.