Recently, the Genetic Alliance, (of which SAA is a part), held a press conference on Capitol Hill in order to urge the House of Representatives to consider and pass the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. The bill is meant to prohibit discrimination on the basis of genetic information with respect to health insurance and employment.

Imagine if testing positive for the HLA-B27 gene meant that certain employers wouldn’t accept you for a physically labor-intensive position. Or that if you were an athlete with talents good enough to turn pro in your respective sport that teams wouldn’t draft you because of your genetic risk factor for Ankylosing Spondylitis. Although these are extreme hypothetical situations, the rise of genetic testing has caused a new fear to emerge: genetic discrimination.

Because genetic testing can offer a glimpse into someone’s future health, some physicians worry that health insurance companies and some employers could use genetic test results to discriminate against patients and employees. Last year the Senate passed legislation aimed at preventing the misuse of information and some lawmakers are pressing the House to vote on the measure this year.

In a real world example, the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe railroad tested employees for a genetic predisposition for carpal tunnel syndrome without their knowledge. The implied intent being that the railroad could let employees go if they might end up collecting workman’s comp in the future.

But, there is a balance. Because research is finding that almost every disease has a genetic component, legislation against genetic testing that is too broad could be a detriment. Says Nancy L. Fisher, MD, a geneticist and clinical associate professor at the University of Washington, “As we get more and more genetic information, we’re going to know that more and more diseases are genetic. If we say health insurance can’t use that to spread the risk, then maybe we don’t want health insurance and should find another way to pay for illness.”