The most published fears are that genetic information will reach insurers and employers, causing discrimination against healthy people who may have expensive illnesses in the future. Almost all professionals and patients (in a survey of 1,084 geneticists and 476 patients) agreed that insurers, employers, and schools should not have access to information from an individual's genetic tests without that person's consent.1 About one-third so distrusted these institutions that they said there should be no access at all, even with consent.
To date, no evidence indicates that insurers or employers are planning to use genetic testing. Most insurance companies get all the risk information they need from family histories. They require testing only in extraordinary circumstances, for example in individual applications for insurance (not via an employer) when the family history shows high risk for a late-onset, single-gene disorder, such as Huntington disease. People insured through their employers generally do not have to provide a family history.
Francis Collins
HGProject Where is it taking us?
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Patenting Bioengineers have inserted foreign genes, including human genes, into the chromosomes of many animals, including pigs, sheep, goats and chickens