Dimensions: 6'' x 9'' 144 pages AEI Press  (Washington) Publication Date: December 1999 Hardcover ISBN: 0844741094 Price: $ 34.95 Add to Cart   Examination Copies

We are in the early years of a technological revolution arising from our understanding of the genetic meaning of life. Scientists' ability to manipulate and decode genes is advancing at an extraordinary pace--so fast that we are often unprepared to handle the many vexing legal, economic, ethical, and social issues it raises. The combination of genetic research and information technology prompts often chilling questions of privacy and genetic discrimination.

In Genetic Testing and the Use of Information, leading scholars confront these hard, fundamental questions: Should individuals be allowed personal property rights to their DNA, cells, or tissues? How should policy makers regulate the biotechnology industry to maximize safety without stifling innovation? What are the appropriate uses of gene therapy and other genetic manipulations? Who should have access to information derived from a genetic test? Should one be obligated to tell a spouse or a child test results? Should governments ever appropriately mandate individual genetic testing or community-wide genetic screening? Will employers be able to require the release of genetic records as a condition of employment? Will insurance companies be allowed to use genetic information to determine risk? At what point does a genetic condition qualify as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act?

In this volume, six distinguished scholars address some of the major issues confronting a society on the brink of a new genetic information age. Every society must find a way to answer the basic question, Who are we? As the torrent of genetic information becomes a deluged, that question reaches to the deepest levels of the individual. Will our socity accept James Dewey Watson's words as true? To what extent are human talents and institutions  hte product of out anatomical, neurological, hormonal, or genetic constitution?

Clarisa Long is the Abramson Fellow at AEI, a reseach fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and an associate professor of law at the University of Virginia School of Law.