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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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Vice President Al Gore today announced that the Clinton Administration
is calling for legislation to bar employers from discriminating against workers
in hiring or promotion because of their genetic makeup.
Gore made the announcement as he released an in-depth administration
report, titled "Genetic Information and the Workplace," that demonstrates why
American workers need federal protection from genetic discrimination in the
workplace. The report was written by the Department of Labor, the Department of
Health and Human Services, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the
Department of Justice.
"We want legislation that will prevent employers from requesting or
requiring genetic information for hiring or for setting salaries; that will
stop employers from using this genetic information to discriminate or segregate
the workplace; and that will ensure that genetic information is not disclosed
without the explicit permission of the individual," Gore said.
Gore made the announcement during the third annual James D. Watson
Lecture at the National Academy of Sciences. The lecture is held each year by
the Genome Action Coalition, a voluntary association of 125 patient advocacy
and professional groups and bio-pharmaceutical companies, which seeks to
engender support for genome research among policy makers and the public. The
group focuses primarily on the Human Genome Project, the international research
initiative to decipher the instructions encoded in human DNA, the hereditary
material.
Deputy Secretary of Labor Kitty Higgins, who discussed the specifics of
the report, cited the legitimate fear among American workers that genetic
information, which can improve their health, will jeopardize their job or deny
them other opportunities.
"All of us should have the confidence that information to improve our
lives won't risk our livelihoods. There should never be a tradeoff between
health security and job security," Higgins said. "Everyone should have access
to job opportunities -- and the only test they should have to pass is a
qualification test -- not a genetic one."
"We knew from the beginning the Human Genome Project would deliver
extraordinary opportunities to understand, treat and prevent human illness,"
said Frances S. Collins, director of the Human Genome Project at the National
Institutes of Health. "We also knew it would present us with public policy
challenges concerning the use of our personal genetic information. The Vice
President's announcement today demonstrates that progress in social policy is
an indispensable component of scientific research."
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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