After passing by a vote of 95-0, the bill will now go to the House.
The legislation would safeguard genetic information to be kept private between doctor and patient and would prohibit discrimination by employers and insurance companies, among others. It is being hailed by Sen. Ted Kennedy as the first new civil rights bill of the century, noting that discrimination based on a person's genetic makeup is just as wrong as discrimination due to race or religion.
Until recently, genetic tests were used mainly for rare conditions that could have catastrophic health consequences. But there are currently more than 1,200 diseases for which predictive clinical tests are available -- including breast cancer, Alzheimer's and a particularly aggressive type of colon cancer. More tests are in development for conditions such as diabetes.
"We're not talking about rare genetic disorders anymore; we are talking about very common traits," said geneticist Joann Boughman, executive vice president of the American Society of Human Genetics. "We are to the point where we can begin testing people so they can make much better plans to avoid getting sick in the first place."
via latimes.com
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