Beyond “Genetic Discrimination”: Toward the Broader Harm of Geneticism

1995 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan M. Wolf
Keyword(s):  
Health Insurance ◽  
Genetic Information ◽  
Genetic Discrimination ◽  
Genetic Knowledge ◽  
Analytic Framework ◽  
Genetic Tests ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Almost All ◽  
As If

The current explosion of genetic knowledge and the rapid proliferation of genetic tests has rightly provoked concern that we are approaching a future in which people will be labeled and disadvantaged based on genetic information. Indeed, some have already suffered harm, including denial of health insurance. This concern has prompted an outpouring of analysis. Yet almost all of it approaches the problem of genetic disadvantage under the rubric of “genetic discrimination.”This rubric is woefully inadequate to the task at hand. It ignores years of commentary on race and gender demonstrating the limits of antidiscrimination analysis as an analytic framework and corrective tool. Too much discussion of genetic disadvantage proceeds as if scholars of race and gender had not spent decades critiquing and developing antidiscrimination theory.Indeed, there are multiple links among race, gender, and genetics. Dorothy Roberts has discussed the historical links between racism and genetics, while she and others have begun to map connections between gender and genetics.

Race and gender as factors in access to health insurance and utilization of health care services

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susana J. Ferradas ◽  
G. Nicole Rider ◽  
Johanna D. Williams ◽  
Brittany J. Dancy ◽  
Lauren R. Mcghee
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
And Gender

Genetic Privacy Laws and Patients' Fear of Discrimination by Health Insurers: The View from Genetic Counselors

2000 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A. Hall ◽  
Stephen S. Rich
Keyword(s):  
Health Insurance ◽  
Genetic Information ◽  
Federal Law ◽  
Genetic Privacy ◽  
Genetic Tests ◽  
Group Health ◽  
Privacy Laws ◽  
Similar Legislation ◽  
Do So ◽  
Health Insurers

Since 1991, over half the states have enacted laws that restrict or prohibit insurers’ use of genetic information in pricing, issuing, or structuring health insurance. Wisconsin was the first state to do so, in 1991, followed by Ohio in 1993, California and Colorado in 1994, and then several more states a year in each of the next five years. Similar legislation has been pending in Congress for several years. Also, a 1996 federal law known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) prohibits group health insurers from applying “preexisting condition” exclusions to genetic conditions that are indicated solely by genetic tests and not by any actual symptoms.

scholarly journals Genetic discrimination: emerging ethical challenges in the context of advancing technology

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Riley Chapman ◽  
Kripa Sanjay Mehta ◽  
Brendan Parent ◽  
Arthur L Caplan
Keyword(s):  
Health Insurance ◽  
Genetic Testing ◽  
Genetic Information ◽  
Predictive Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Genetic Discrimination ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Discrimination In Employment

Abstract Genetic testing is becoming more widespread, and its capabilities and predictive power are growing. In this paper, we evaluate the ethical justifications for and strength of the US legal framework that aims to protect patients, research participants, and consumers from genetic discrimination in employment and health insurance settings in the context of advancing genetic technology. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) and other laws prohibit genetic and other health-related discrimination in the United States, but these laws have significant limitations, and some provisions are under threat. If accuracy and predictive power increase, specific instances of use of genetic information by employers may indeed become ethically justifiable; however, any changes to laws would need to be adopted cautiously, if at all, given that people have consented to genetic testing with the expectation that there would be no genetic discrimination in employment or health insurance settings. However, if our society values access to healthcare for both the healthy and the sick, we should uphold strict and broad prohibitions against genetic and health-related discrimination in the context of health insurance, including employer-based health insurance. This is an extremely important but often overlooked consideration in the current US debate on healthcare.

US Interventions and Occupations in Latin America

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan McPherson
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
The United States ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Good Neighbor ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Cold War

From 1800 to the present, US troops have intervened thousands of times in Latin America and have occupied its countries on dozens of occasions. Interventions were short-term and superficial, while occupations lasted longer and controlled local governments. The causes of these troop landings reflected the United States’ motivations as it expanded from a strong, large republic into first a continental and then an overseas empire at the expense of its smaller, weaker neighbors. Those motivations included colonial land hunger, cultural chauvinism, the exploitation of resources, the search for markets abroad, competition against other great powers, political reformism, global ideological struggle, and the perception that US domestic problems originated in Latin America. US troops undertook almost all these interventions and occupations, although private groups sometimes joined. The major periods were the expansion of the continental republic from 1811 to 1897, the war in Cuba and the apex of occupations (1898–1933), the Good Neighbor years (1934–1953), the Cold War (1954–1990), and the post-Cold War period (1991–2018 and ongoing). Scholars of these events have become increasingly critical and diverse, not only seeing them often as unnecessary brutal failures but also foregrounding extra-military aspects of these episodes, such as economics, race, and gender.

Disruption in Detroit

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J Clark
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
White Women ◽  
Cold Weather ◽  
United Auto Workers ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Auto Workers ◽  
Hot Weather ◽  
Job Instability ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Almost All

It is conventional wisdom that because of lucrative contracts negotiated by the United Auto Workers (UAW) under Walter Reuther's leadership, most autoworkers in the U.S. enjoyed steady work, increasing wages, and improved benefits in the postwar boom following World War II. In short, autoworkers entered the middle class. In contrast, this book argues that for Detroit autoworkers there was no postwar boom. Instead, the years from 1945 to 1960 were dominated by job instability and economic insecurity. This argument is based largely on oral history interviews and research in local newspapers, which covered the auto industry extensively. Conditions were worse for African Americans and white women, but almost all autoworkers experienced precarious, often dire circumstances. Recessions, automation, decentralization, and the collapse of independent automakers in Detroit are part of the story, but materials shortages, steel, coal, and copper strikes, parts supplier strikes, wildcat strikes, overproduction (especially in 1955), hot weather, cold weather, plant explosions, age, race, and gender workplace discrimination, and the inability of autoworkers to afford new cars contributed to instability and insecurity. Hardly anyone in the 1950s—whether ordinary autoworkers, union leaders, auto company executives, business analysts, or local shopkeepers—thought that the decade was marked by steady work, improving wages, or anything resembling predictable income for autoworkers.

Genomics, Insurance and Human Rights: Is there a Place for Regulatory Frameworks in Africa?

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-34
Author(s):  
Vincent O. Nmehielle
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Genetic Information ◽  
Insurance Industry ◽  
Genetic Discrimination ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
Genetic Profile ◽  
Regulatory Frameworks ◽  
Health Care Context ◽  
Insurance Decisions

AbstractThis article examines the human rights dimension of genetic discrimination in Africa, exploring the place of regulatory frameworks while taking into account the disadvantaged position of the average African. This is in response to the tendency of insurance companies toward making health insurance decisions on the basis of individual genetic information, which could result in genetic discrimination or health insurance discrimination based on a person's genetic profile. The author considers such questions as the intersection between human rights (right to life, health, privacy, human dignity and against genetic discrimination) in relation to the insurance industry, as well as the obligations of state and non-state actors to promote, respect, and protect the enjoyment of these rights. The article argues that African nations should not stand aloof in trying to balance the competing interests (scientific, economic and social) presented by the use of genetic information in the health care context and that ultimately it is the responsibility of states to develop domestic policies to protect their most vulnerable citizens and to prevent entrenched private discrimination based on an individual's genes.

scholarly journals The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 33-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie G. Donald ◽  
Adam K. Sanders
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Information ◽  
Insurance Coverage ◽  
Genetic Discrimination ◽  
Genetic Tests

This article argues that GINA theoretically protects people from genetic discrimination in insurance coverage and in employment; however, its true legacy will be assuring the American public that taking genetic tests will not invite sanctions from either insurance providers or employers.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 173-178
Author(s):  
Beth Reingold
Keyword(s):  
Women Of Color ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Multiple Forms ◽  
Analytic Framework ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Many

The concluding chapter summarizes the main findings and highlights the book’s contributions to the study of gender, race, and representation and the development of intersectionality as an analytic framework. It reviews, chapter by chapter, the many ways in which the election, activity, and impact of legislative women of color matter, not just for women and minorities, but especially for those situated at the intersections of multiple forms of disempowerment and misrepresentation. Examining politics from the perspective of women of color, this book demonstrates the many complex ways race and gender together shape democratic institutions and the representational opportunities and challenges they present. Little of what the book reveals, however, would have been possible without the critical intersectional approach informing it. Thus, Chapter 7 concludes with a call for more intersectional approaches to investigating questions, both old and new, about political representation and categories of difference.

The Good Worker: Race and Gender in a 1970s Southern City

1994 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-292
Author(s):  
Shirley Harkess ◽  
Carol Warren
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Mental Image ◽  
Gender Segregation ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Entry Level ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Southern City ◽  
Almost All ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Ideal Worker

By the end of the 1970s, the effort to end employment discrimination in the South by means of affirmative action was directed toward women as well as blacks. This study, based on interviews with owners or personnel managers in 29 local or national manufacturing firms in a medium-sized city, reveals that those selecting entry-level operatives do so in terms of an elaborated mental image of the “good worker.” Essentially, the ideal worker is acquiescent as well as ever-present. The race and gender components and implications of the image tended to undermine the intent and effect of affirmative action in jobs that had few qualifications but many applicants. Almost all of those actually hired were previously known to the employer. In this context, some degree of racial integration occurred, while a high degree of gender segregation continued. Of interest from the vantage point of today, at no time was age discrimination a consideration. We conclude by noting the difficulty of altering the employer's need for control as expressed by insuring a compliant workforce.

Genetic Exceptionalism and Legislative Pragmatism

2007 ◽  
Vol 35 (S2) ◽  
pp. 59-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A. Rothstein
Keyword(s):  
Health Insurance ◽  
Genetic Information ◽  
Medical Information ◽  
Genetic Discrimination ◽  
Genome Project ◽  
Genetic Privacy ◽  
State Laws ◽  
Genetic Exceptionalism ◽  
Discrimination In Employment ◽  
The Human Genome Project

One of the most important and contentious policy issues surrounding genetics is whether genetic information should be treated separately from other medical information. The view that genetics raises distinct issues is what Thomas Murray labeled “genetic exceptionalism,” borrowing from the earlier term “HIV exceptional-ism.” The issue of whether the use of genetic information should be addressed separately from other health information is not merely an academic concern, however. Since the Human Genome Project began in 1990, nearly every state has enacted legislation prohibiting genetic discrimination in health insurance; two-thirds of the states have enacted laws prohibiting genetic discrimination in employment, and other state laws have been enacted dealing with genetic discrimination in life insurance, genetic privacy, and genetic testing. Bills in Congress also would prohibit genetic discrimination in health insurance and employment.

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