My ex-co worker recently went thru an interview with COMPANY A. After six to sevenmonths of intervie
My ex-co worker recently went thru an interview with COMPANY A. After six to sevenmonths 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 saidthat in reviewing her bloodwork, they found few things they weren’t happy with. She hadto 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 geneticdisorderthatexemplifiesthesedifficultethicalandsocialconcernsis Huntington’s disease (HD). Symptoms of HD, which include uncontrolled movements,loss of mental abilities, and emotional disturbances, are caused by the progressive deathof neurons in certain areas of the brain. “If you have either cancer or HD, you can be atrisk of being let go before others who don’t have it. It costs too much to have that personaround since employers are responsible for medical insurances. I saw this one HRawarded as one of the best employees of the year was let go. Everyone knew that it wasbecause he had a cancer.Honestly, I am scared of people who have mental illness. At my previous company, therewas 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 linesand satellites. We were told that his car was arsenal. Mental illness is genetic and earlierprevention is required.However, for most part, it will cause major ethical dilemmas. There will be no privacy and it’llgive employers more reasons to fire or judge people. It is not fair, because test is a test. No test is100% correct. Mutation is not detectable either.Another growing clinical application of genetic testing is identification of the geneticcontribution to risk for common diseases to guide early intervention and preventive care.Reference:Norrgard, K. (2008). Ethics of Genetic Testing: Medical Insurance and GeneticDiscrimination. Retrieved October 26, 2015Lea, D. (2005). Medscape Log In. Retrieved October 26, 2015.