A BRAVE NEW WORLD OF GENETIC profiling in which humans will be categorized at birth according to health and likelihood of illness could lead to widespread discrimination by the government, the NHS, big business and insurance companies.
Experts are now clashing over whether genetic profiling is something to be feared, with some warning that techniques used to identify medical complaints before they take hold are ripe for abuse, and others saying there is nothing to worry about.
"Genetic profiling will be used to categorise people, to sort and
select, to create profiles of types and to predict and pre-empt - and
all that leads to discrimination," said Dr David Murakami Wood, a
research fellow in surveillance at Newcastle University.
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"Our
bodies and our DNA are some of the last things we hold private. My
first reaction is forget about privacy', but we should still fight for
our privacy because the fight for our communications and personal data
is already lost. At the moment our genetic privacy still exists.
"It
is more special than our financial data because it is the essence of
who we are and what our bodies are and I believe the line has to be
drawn here. Once our individual genetic information is out there, all
bets are off. It will be out of our control... more
Experts are now clashing over whether genetic profiling is something to be feared, with some warning that techniques used to identify medical complaints before they take hold are ripe for abuse, and others saying there is nothing to worry about.
"Genetic profiling will be used to categorise people, to sort and
select, to create profiles of types and to predict and pre-empt - and
all that leads to discrimination," said Dr David Murakami Wood, a
research fellow in surveillance at Newcastle University.
advertisement
"Our
bodies and our DNA are some of the last things we hold private. My
first reaction is forget about privacy', but we should still fight for
our privacy because the fight for our communications and personal data
is already lost. At the moment our genetic privacy still exists.
"It
is more special than our financial data because it is the essence of
who we are and what our bodies are and I believe the line has to be
drawn here. Once our individual genetic information is out there, all
bets are off. It will be out of our control... more
