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...
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…
