May 09, 2007

We need an insurance for what could be discovered mapping our genes.

Sir, Patti Waldmeir in “The Dangerous new age of the genome”, May 9, writes about some legislative initiatives in the US that look to combat the “genetic discrimination” that might result from mapping the genes. This might be a good start but as I wrote in an article titled “Human genetics made inhuman” that I published in 2000, I submit that a better, or at least a more practical approach, might be to ask the insurance companies to come up with an insurance that covers any increased health insurance costs that can result from such a mapping when compared to an average citizen, and then require evidence that such an insurance has been contracted for before allowing at least any young person to have his or her genes mapped.