My ex-co worker recently went thru an interview with COMPANY A. After six to seven
months of interviews, she told me that she indeed got the job.
Weeks later, she still hasn’t left the job yet, so I asked her what the status was. She said
that in reviewing her bloodwork, they found few things they weren’t happy with. She had
to go back for another round to get her bloodwork done.
I was shocked. What does health have to do with getting a job?
According to both references listed at the end of this page, “One devastating genetic
disorder
that
exemplifies
these
difficult
ethical
and
social
concerns
is Huntington’s disease (HD). Symptoms of HD, which include uncontrolled movements,
loss of mental abilities, and emotional disturbances, are caused by the progressive death
of neurons in certain areas of the brain. “If you have either cancer or HD, you can be at
risk of being let go before others who don’t have it. It costs too much to have that person
around since employers are responsible for medical insurances. I saw this one HR
awarded as one of the best employees of the year was let go. Everyone knew that it was
because he had a cancer.
Honestly, I am scared of people who have mental illness. At my previous company, there
was one employee whom I had a daily interaction with was caught last month ( Sep 2015)
because he was trying to shoot down the entire building after cutting off elevators, phone lines
and satellites. We were told that his car was arsenal. Mental illness is genetic and earlier
prevention is required.
However, for most part, it will cause major ethical dilemmas. There will be no privacy and it’ll
give employers more reasons to fire or judge people. It is not fair, because test is a test. No test is
100% correct. Mutation is not detectable either.
Another growing clinical application of genetic testing is identification of the genetic
contribution to risk for common diseases to guide early intervention and preventive care.
Reference:
Norrgard, K. (2008). Ethics of Genetic Testing: Medical Insurance and Genetic
Discrimination. Retrieved October 26, 2015
Lea, D. (2005). Medscape Log In. Retrieved October 26, 2015.
