Your Are More Than Your DNA Sample

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Genetic testing has potentialities which include the erosion of Fourth Amendment right to privacy. When all genes are mapped, hopefully, a situation like what occurred in the movie Gattaca does NOT happen. In that film, people with only the best genetic traits are eligible for the prime jobs, while those who lack the pre-implanted superior genes (otherwise “natural” births) are typically confined to low level menial jobs.  If not enough protection is given to patient privacy and disclosure rights, this seemingly novel advance in medicine could play out like the movie.  The rights of all people must be protected, stronger than HIPAA, and immune to the future legal manipulations.

Fourth Amendment. (n.d.) West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2. (2008). Retrieved October 26 2009 from http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Fourth+Amendment

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