This question deals with issue that could very easily arise in the future and wi

Question

This question deals with issue that could very easily arise in the future and will have to be dealt with by society. This is meant to be an opinion question to get you to think about of this issue and what should be done. As of this point in time, this scenario is not real.

1. John Smith is 30 years old when his father dies of complications of Huntington's disease, a genetic condition that usually does not show up until a person is 35-40 years old. Huntington's is characterized by a slow progression of physical and mental deterioration leading to death. There is now a test available to see if the Huntington's gene is present. John decides to take the test to see if he will suffer from the disease in the future. Somehow, John's health and life insurance company learn about the results of the test and cancel his insurance. Then, he is released from his job of more than eight years. Company officials are afraid that the medical costs of caring for John will increase the group insurance rate.

a. Should the company be allowed to make decisions based on medical information from John's DNA? Please explain.

b. Should the company be able to make John's information available to other companies that John is interviewing with? Why or why not?

Explanation / Answer

There are different diseases that are occurred due to the presence of trinucleotide repeats in their candidate genes. For example,-----CAGCAGCAGCAGCAG---- is trinucleotide repeat present in the Huntington's disease. These trinucleotide repeat codes for polyglutamine, thus the Huntington proteins form aggregates in the neuronal cells cause neurological impartment.

a)

No, the decisions should not be based on medical information from John's DNA, because it is a genetic condition. It is against the rules of Eugenics; the genetic quality of that person is not solely depending on him, it is an inherited character. This type of treatment to john may lead to development of inferiority character.    

Based on the Federal legislation general principles, the company should not request the employee to take genetic test and should not classify the employee based on genetic information.   

b)

No, it should be kept confidential, if other companies had known about the Johns condition; he could not get another job in his lifetime. If fact, he can proceed legally against the company that had terminated him based on his genetic condition. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) reports the subject of genetic discrimination is the 1996. Based on this act the health plans should not take an account of genetic information.

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