THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 9, 1995 TAG: 9504090071
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has concluded that healthy people carrying abnormal genes are protected against employment discrimination by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The commission's finding, released last month as part of a larger document clarifying the definition of ``disability'' under the ADA, has potentially enormous implications. It is the first federal document to declare that it is illegal for an employer to discriminate against a worker on the basis of his or her genetic makeup.
The EEOC interpretation has yet to be tested in court, and does not address the question of whether insurance companies may deny health insurance to people with abnormal genes.
But experts said the EEOC's interpretation of the law is likely to make people more willing to take advantage of a growing array of new genetic tests that can identify vulnerability to specific diseases, sometimes allowing more effective prevention or treatment. Many patients are reluctant to undergo such tests because of fear that the results will be used against them.
``This solves a huge dilemma that's been sitting there without an obvious solution,'' said Francis S. Collins, director of the federal Center for Human Genome Research, which oversees the ongoing U.S. effort to identify every gene in the human body and to address ethical and social issues related to the testing for such genes.
Paul Steven Miller, one of the five EEOC commissioners, said the bipartisan commission's unanimous decision to include genetic discrimination under the terms of the ADA did not amount to a new rule, but was an interpretation of the law that had never been clearly spelled out before. The law on genetic discrimination should be clear, he said. ``It is illegal.''
Some doctors are offering genetic tests to predict people's risks of developing certain diseases - including heart disease, Alzheimer's disease and certain cancers - and to help parents predict their chances of passing disease genes to their children.
Although often inexact, providing relative odds rather than certainties, the tests can help people make medical and lifestyle decisions that in some cases may prevent or delay the onset of disease. by CNB