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Employees who decline genetic testing could face penalties under proposed bill

mercurynews.com

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Re: Employees who decline genetic testing could face penalties under proposed bill

#11

Post by fragsworth »

deathhand wrote: post #10
wodencafe wrote: post #2

Congress is going backwards! How could they even consider this bill? It's legalized genetic discrimination, and no protections on how the data can be used (or who it can be sold to).

To be devil's advocate... Why not just make the data free and open to all? It is for the benefit for humanity. You and I are in this world together and we should help each other as much as possible.

And then some researcher finds a (probably not causative) correlation between a certain set of genes and pedophilia.

Say you're a politician, and one of your opponents discovers you have the genes. Good luck dealing with that shit

Re: Employees who decline genetic testing could face penalties under proposed bill

#12

Post by canadian_voter »

deathhand wrote: post #10
wodencafe wrote: post #2

Congress is going backwards! How could they even consider this bill? It's legalized genetic discrimination, and no protections on how the data can be used (or who it can be sold to).

To be devil's advocate... Why not just make the data free and open to all? It is for the benefit for humanity. You and I are in this world together and we should help each other as much as possible.

You and I are in this world together and we should help each other as much as possible.

Ah yes, the clarion call of modern capitalism.

Why not just make the data free and open to all?

Knowing more doesn't always lead to better outcomes in a biased system.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_audition

Re: Employees who decline genetic testing could face penalties under proposed bill

#13

Post by noir_lord »

deathhand wrote: post #10
wodencafe wrote: post #2

Congress is going backwards! How could they even consider this bill? It's legalized genetic discrimination, and no protections on how the data can be used (or who it can be sold to).

To be devil's advocate... Why not just make the data free and open to all? It is for the benefit for humanity. You and I are in this world together and we should help each other as much as possible.

Because it slams straight into body autonomy, what is more personal than the building blocks that make you who you are (to a large extent).

I'm a socialist in the old school 'greater good' sense but you have to draw the line somewhere and I think for things like DNA that line should be drawn extremely carefully.

I'm a big advocate of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precautionary_principle

Re: Employees who decline genetic testing could face penalties under proposed bill

#14

Post by Pxtl »

ekianjo wrote: post #9
guftagu wrote: post #4

Isn't this exactly the premise of the movie Gattaca? Great movie, BTW.

Except that no amount of scrubbing should make you undetectable.

The trick was he overwhelmed his real traces with fake ones from Jude Law's character. Vaccuuming out his keyboard and then dumping in somebody else's skin and hair. Traces of the janitor would be reasonable to expect, right?

Re: Employees who decline genetic testing could face penalties under proposed bill

#16

Post by cylinder »

deathhand wrote: post #10
wodencafe wrote: post #2

Congress is going backwards! How could they even consider this bill? It's legalized genetic discrimination, and no protections on how the data can be used (or who it can be sold to).

To be devil's advocate... Why not just make the data free and open to all? It is for the benefit for humanity. You and I are in this world together and we should help each other as much as possible.

When did I agree to be in this world with everyone else? I am free to go off and live my own private life without being part​ of this "global community" if I choose.

Re: Employees who decline genetic testing could face penalties under proposed bill

#18

Post by thotpoizn »

fragsworth wrote: post #11
deathhand wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be devil's advocate... Why not just make the data free and open to all? It is for the benefit for humanity. You and I are in this world together and we should help each other as much as possible.

And then some researcher finds a (probably not causative) correlation between a certain set of genes and pedophilia. Say you're a politician, and one of your opponents discovers you have the genes. Good luck dealing with that shit

Just for argument's sake... Do you think the greater good would be served by protecting that politician's privacy, and that of several dozen school teachers who also carried that set of genes? Or would society be better off if the politician and the teachers were subjected to greater scrutiny, leading to some percentage of them being removed when discovered to be actual pedophiles?

This isn't meant as rhetorical, and I'm not trying to score some point. I'm honestly not sure where I land on this. Part of me wants to say "tough noogies, it's worth it to stop those kiddie diddlers" and another part is going, "whoa nellie, what if most of those people are completely innocent but will now forever live with this awful stigma?"

I think there's a multi-track drifting joke in here somewhere too, but I haven't had my coffee yet.

Re: Employees who decline genetic testing could face penalties under proposed bill

#19

Post by dsr_ »

cylinder wrote: post #16
deathhand wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be devil's advocate... Why not just make the data free and open to all? It is for the benefit for humanity. You and I are in this world together and we should help each other as much as possible.

When did I agree to be in this world with everyone else? I am free to go off and live my own private life without being part​ of this "global community" if I choose.

That's actually very difficult, possibly impossible. Virtually every square inch of land has been claimed by someone else. Much of the ocean is open to you, but it's very difficult to bootstrap without substantial resources from land-based civilizations.

Re: Employees who decline genetic testing could face penalties under proposed bill

#20

Post by pharrington »

wodencafe wrote: post #2

Congress is going backwards! How could they even consider this bill? It's legalized genetic discrimination, and no protections on how the data can be used (or who it can be sold to).

According to the article (I haven't checked congress.gov yet), said bill hasn't even passed committee yet. As foul as the proposal is, this isn't indicative of a regression or collapse of the legislative process.
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