Let us impose this ban so those people do not lawfully have the means to abuse genetics. I agree with the ban in order to ensure the safety of employees from being discriminated against because of their genetic makeup. Similar actions have been taken with regards to the HIV virus. Yet, at the same time, I think that precautions need to be taken in order to create a safe work environment for the other employees. While I agree that some action needs to take place to prevent blatant abuse of genetic information in the workplace leading to discrimination, it is important to be careful when enacting any legislation.
Laws are much more difficult to undo than they are to make.
One problem with legislation against the use of genetic information is defining what genetic information is. For example, your blood type is genetic, but can be determined from many other tests beside genetic ones, so is one's cholesterol level and blood pressure, as well as genetic disorders such as sickle cell anemia. Because it is so difficult to distinguish genetic information from the rest of our medical information, it may be more appropriate to concentrate on medical records privacy rather than genetic information privacy. Furthermore, if we are quickto rush into legislation to ban access to genetic information, these laws may be used to define genetic information in research areas, and in some cases may create more obstaces to researchers than we would like. Finally, it is important to note that the government is attempting to legislate an area in a proactive rather than reactive manner.