A genetic minefield
By SIMON KEARNEY, national political reporter
28may00
GENETIC information identifying everything from the likelihood of a
drinking problem to susceptibility to cancer will be used in job
interviews, the Privacy Commissioner has warned.
NSW Privacy Commissioner Chris Puplick said yesterday genetic information
contained in electronic records was being used overseas to discriminate
against people -- and he said the practice should be banned in Australia
immediately.
Mr Puplick, speaking at the Australian Medical Association's national
conference in Canberra, said a range of proposals by federal and state
governments to develop widespread and easily accessible electronic health
records could also include such genetic markers.
"It is happening already," he said. "As technology improves so will using
these genetic markers ... there is a growing tendency for them to be used."
Mr Puplick said that last year US President Bill Clinton had acted to ban
the use of genetic screening for public service positions in the US.
He said the first electronic records proposal was a system whereby
Australians would be given a PIN known as a unique health identifier which
could be used to access their medical records in every surgery, pharmacy
and hospital in the country.
"We need to control these so they don't become potential identity cards,"
Mr Puplick said. "I think the law has to provide a prohibition on genetic
discrimination."
AMA vice president Dr Sandra Hacker said the medical organisation was
relatively supportive of electronic records as long as the privacy concerns
were addressed.
"It's likely to be a PIN number to provide access to link various health
records," she said.
Dr Hacker said the Federal Government was also working on another system of
electronic health records, containing medical histories on a smart card.
She said the AMA would only support the cards where they were voluntary, so
only people who needed them would get them, and they would not become de
facto identity cards.
In the recent federal Budget a similar electronic system of recording and
accessing medications in pharmacies was introduced.
Dr Hacker said the AMA was confused about the introduction of the scheme
because there were now three separate proposals for remote electronic
access to people's records.
--
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