Genome Introduces Fears As Well As Hope

June 26 -- The drafts that researchers finished of the human genome introduce a wealth of vital information for medical researchers.

But some fear there may also be such a thing as too much information.

“Just as we fought major battles over social, racial and women’s rights in past decades, these will be the years we battle against genetic discrimination,” said Jeremy Rifkin of the Foundation for Economic Trends and author of The Biotech Century.

No Genetic Privacy

The human genome in its finished form will offer a detailed guidebook to the human body. Most of this draft is standard copy — every human being shares about 99.9 percent of the same genetic make-up. The remaining 0.1 percent is what makes each person unique. And some fear that’s where companies or individuals may find ways to discriminate.

“[It] is virtually impossible to achieve full medical privacy,” Craig Venter recently told a “High-tech summit” held by the Joint Economic Committee of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Venter is head of Celera Genomics, Inc. which was one of two teams of researchers working on the genome drafts.

“Accepting this fact highlights our need for legislation prohibiting discrimination on the basis of genetic information.”

One long-term goal of genomic research is to create a genetic I.D. of every individual, explains Rifkin. People will then be able to use their genetic portraits to understand what kind of health risks they face and the treatments that will work best for them.

But, as research has been showing, genes offer much more information than disease vulnerability. They also signal for traits like hair color, obesity, vision, even certain kinds of personalities.

“We haven’t found any behavior that has no genetic influence yet,” says Greg Carey, a psychologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The fear is that companies may some day be able to access this kind of genetic information. Then executives may pick and choose candidates simply by screening for preferred genetic traits. Groups such as the Coalition for Genetic Fairness also worry that insurance companies may deny individuals coverage based on their genetic information.