Genetics and Privacy
![handle is hein.journals/trlp4 and id is 29 raw text is: GENETICS AND PRivAcY
DOUGLAS H. GINSBURG*
INTRODUCTION
We have witnessed in this decade a veritable explosion in both
our understanding of genetics and our exposure to genetic
information.! From Dolly the cloned sheep2 to DNA testing in
criminal and paternity cases--including the recent foray of
genetics into the historical debate over the relationship between
Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings4-genetic information has
reached the surface of our collective consciousness. Add to that
the advances in the understanding of DNA arising out of the
Human Genome Project,5 and there is a fertile climate for the
position known as genetic exceptionalism. Broadly speaking,
genetic exceptionalism is the claim that genetic information is
sufficiently different from other kinds of health-related
information that it deserves special [legal] protection.6 In its
more reductionist variants, genetic exceptionalism can
transform into genetic essentialism or determinism-the notion
* Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. I would
like to thank Scott Angstreich for his substantive contribution to this piece and his
research assistance.
1. See, e.g.,John Carey et al., The Biotech Century, BUS. Wk., Mar. 10, 1997, at 78.
2. See Ian Wilmut et al., Viable Offspring Dervied from Fetal and Adult Mammalian Cells,
385 NATURE 810 (1997).
3. See, e.g., Ralph Jimenez, DNA Test? It'll be Elementary Watson, B. GLOBE, Nov. 29,
1998, at 1 (New Hampshire Weekly); Robert Guy Matthews, Traces of You, BALTIMORE
SUN, Aug. 13, 1998, at IF.
4. See Eugene A. Foster et al., Scientific Correspondence, Jefferson Fathered Slave's Last
Child 396 NATURE 27 (1998).
5. See, e.g., Geonomic Wsdom, ECONOMIST, Aug. 19, 1995, at 73.
6. Thomas H. Murray, Gentic Exceptionalism and Future Diaries: Is Geneic Information
Different fiom Other Medical Information, in GENETIC SECRETS: PROTECTING PRIVACY AND
CONFIDENTIALITY IN THE GENETIC ERA 60, 61 (Mark A. Rothstein ed., 1997).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/trlp4&div=10&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Genetics and Privacy
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most