Further legislation to regulate the use of genetic testing is by no means necessary. While there is much debate as to whether or not individuals' freedoms and rights will be violated by the ability to pretest their dispositions to medical disorders, to date there has been no evidence of employers using this information to discriminate against current or potential employees. There are currently enough safeguards in effect, from sources such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, to protect the rights of patients. Furthermore, the business community and more importantly, individual consumers can gain benefits from the use of genetic screening by insurance companies.
As Lawrence Lorber, a representative of the United State Chamber of Commerce, made clear in the textbook there are currently controls in place to prevent employers from discriminating against employees based upon the results of genetic test. Adequate safeguards are provided in the American with Disabilities Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Even in states with notoriously litigious track records, such as California and New Jersey, there has not been a single case brought on the grounds of genetic discrimination. He further goes on to add "there ought to be a reluctance to add to this mass of regulation and a requirement that any law address a real issue which is not dealt with by the existing body of regulation." (Lesser 381) Lorber basically argues that there is no sense in writing legislation to solve problems that do not exist.
Currently the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits "any medical testing that isn't necessary to determine whether an em ...