GENETIC TESTS

So, what happens to the genetic tests that are done on you, with or without your knowledge/permission [see future posts “My Story” and “Information Collected (or Not)].

Besides going to researchers (and probably the pharmaceutical companies they are associated with), it may go to insurance companies, employers, banks, marketing companies and probably a whole lot of other “people”. And this is just the start.

“Canada’s privacy watchdog is urging insurance companies and others to stop asking for access to the results of existing genetic tests.”

Federal Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien says it is becoming more of a challenge to protect people’s genetic privacy with recent advances in science and technology.

‘We are calling on the industry to refrain from asking for existing test results to assess insurance risk until the industry can clearly show that these tests are necessary and effective in assessing risk.’  Therrien said in a statement Thursday.

There are now hundreds of tests to help spot genes known to increase a person’s risk of certain medical conditions.

But some people may decline tests for fear a positive result may mean they could face discrimination from insurance companies or their employers.. (1)

There are currently no laws in Canada that specifically prohibit genetic discrimination.”

Declining the tests, of course, assumes the people are given an option and the tests are not just done, without the people’s knowledge/real consent, from blood and other samples collected by the medical business.

And what will happen when they “open the door to an era of personalized medicine,” where treatments are tailored to specific genetic characteristics. (2) How many other people/organizations will have access to our very, very personal information such as marketers, suppliers, banks, insurance companies, employers, other countries (who many disallow you into their country), etc.?

How much discrimination will the people face based on our specific genetic characteristics? Will they be denied having children?  Will they be denied certain health care, jobs, etc.  Will they be targeted for experimentation (with or without their knowledge)?  And the list of possible discrimination goes on…

We have no idea what’s going on and how it will affect us. It seems like a free-for-all with our information/body parts.  And once it’s out there, you don’t get it back.  And we have no idea what’s going on in the medical/government business.

The turdits, and their friends in the medical/government business, won’t/can’t protect our information and, instead, share it with all the ghouls even when there are laws prohibiting it (see all past/future posts) and, of course, in cases like genetic tests they don’t even bother with laws. That would be working in the interests of the people and gawd forbid that should happen.

 

  1. Insurers asked to stop seeking access to results of genetic tests – The Canadian Press, 11 July 2014, Metro
  2. Hospital launches legal challenge to patents on genes – Andre Picard, 4 Nov 2014, The Globe and Mail

 

SELF-ENTITLED

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms – Fundamental Rights:

Section 15.

  1. Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination   (1)

The privacy act is a legal document.

Yet, the medical business has a two-tiered system, those who have the right to privacy (those with a sense of self-entitlement) and those who do not, those who are sold/traded/bartered/experimented on and those who are not.  The self-entitled people, as selected by the medical business, have rights the rest of the citizens do not.  The self-entitled people include medical personnel.  That’s one of the reasons they don’t care about our rights because their rights are protected.

And isn’t it called discrimination when one group has privileges that is denied to another group.

I believe the two-tiered system, giving some people rights and privileges denied to others, is a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a violation of the law, a violation of our fundamental rights. But, as we know, the medical business/government do not care about the rights of most citizens or the law.

Elites, Upper/Lower Class

I often hear/read the terms elites, upper/middle/lower class which imply that some people are better than others, that some people are “inferior”. It usually is used relative to money and power.  I would hope people would find new words because some people are NOT better than others.  For example, a person gains a lot of money by brown-bagging (Brian Mulroney, and others, were accused of this), and other unscrupulous means vs a person who wins a lottery and gives it away, not because they have a lot of money but they have enough and others do not.  Who would you consider the better person, the elite, the upper class?  I would hope that people would start using specific terms like the 1%, or people with more money or people with political control.

Sometimes the terms are used in relation to someone who is well-educated in political science or mathematics, etc. but who knows little or nothing about growing food, building a house, or social work and so on.   So who is “more important” or is neither and each is simply educated in a particular area (school and/or self educated).

This also applies to the concept of social status; for example, doctors are usually considered to have a higher “social status” again due to money and the “job title”.

I find these terms arrogant, manipulative, a form of brainwashing, as well as archaic baggage from the past that should be left behind. If the terms social status, elites, etc. referred to people with values such as morals, ethics, integrity they might be appropriate..  But they don’t.  So – Let’s evolve and get rid of them.
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