Protecting Your Genes in Canada

Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act in Canada

Canada, as the majority of the developed states, continues to battle discrimination in all aspects of life, including employment, health care, education and so on. And the nature of the discrimination targeted by society and legislators is multiple, indulging religious, gender, sexual or political orientation, so on and so forth.

Currently, a question is being posed as to the necessity of an act to prevent genetic discrimination in the North American country. The question is raised by the increasing focus placed on genetics these days and the potential impact they can have on the life of an individual, including their life style, their health care or their employment status.

In its simplest form and formulation, genetic discrimination refers to the provision of different treatment to different individuals based on the genetic differences they reveal, such as a disease they have or could develop in the future based on their genetic predisposition.

"Genetic discrimination occurs when people are treated unfairly because of actual or perceived differences in their genetic information that may cause or increase the risk to develop a disorder or disease" (Canadian Coalition for Genetic Fairness).

Genetic discrimination is best revealed within two specific contexts: employment and health care. At the level of employment, genetic discrimination would occur when an employer refuses to hire an individual based on a genetic predisposition to develop certain diseases. In terms of health care, the discrimination would be best revealed through the health insurance providers, who would provide costlier insurance -- or even deny it -- to individuals with a genetic predisposition towards certain diseases.

Aside from being unfair and unethical, the existence of such discriminatory practices generates negative effects upon the well-being of the population, as well as upon the overall advancement of medicine. For instance, a businessman might deny a genetic test for fear that results showing a specific predisposition would be recorded by his employer, and this would negatively impact his employment status, his opportunity for promotion or even the health insurance for himself or his family. The intentional denial of genetic testing -- when this is possible and shown to improve the future quality of life and health for an individual when a predisposition or diseases is identified early on -- generates negative impacts for the individual, his family, the society and also slows down the rate of medical research and advancement (Canadian Coalition for Genetic Fairness).

Seeing that such forms of discrimination already exist in Canada, is can be concluded that there exists a real need for an act to regulate the use of genetic information and prevent it from being employed in discriminatory acts. Within the United States of America, such an act already exists and it is entitled the Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act; it was implemented in 2008 and its aim is that of reducing discrimination based on genetic differences between the different citizens in the country (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2009). The success of the act furthermore indicates that it is useful and necessary within Canada as well.

While a discussion has already been launched regarding the implementation of a similar act in Canada, a final decision has yet to be made. Still, in the current setting, the personal belief is that such an act should be implemented, due to four primary reasons:

Genetic discrimination exists in Canada and it is likely to increase unless legislations are created to prohibit and punish it

Genetic discrimination is, like any other form of discrimination, immoral and illegal and efforts should be made to discourage it

For fear that genetic information might be used against them, the Canadian citizens refuse to get tested, jeopardizing as such their future health

Last, an act to regulate genetic discrimination in Canada should be implemented because the Canadian people feel strongly about the issue: "Approximately 91% of Canadians feel that insurance companies should not be allowed access to their genetic information for an insurance assessment. Further, 90% of Canadians opposed the notion that employers should have access to the genetic information of workers or job applicants" (Canadian Coalition for Genetic Fairness).

A difficulty is however perceived in terms of the actual implementation, which is expected to be a tedious process, especially since supportive legislations do not exist so far. In this order of ideas, the Canadian Coalition for Genetic Fairness proposed a seven step plan, as follows: (1) creating legislation to prohibit insurance companies to request genetic information; (2) ensuring provincial and territorial governments collaborate to fight genetic discrimination; (3) creating legislation that prohibits the usage of genetic information in employment decisions; (4) improving the Canadian Human Rights Act to better protect citizens against discrimination based on potential future disability; (5) strengthening the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act in order to better safeguard genetic information; (6) regulating genetic tests in accordance to their clear purposes, and last (7) changing the Canadian Labour Code to eliminate genetic discrimination in the workplace (Watton, 2009).