Gattaca, Here We Come!

This isn't exactly about wannabe astronauts going to the moon but how privacy groups and experts on genetics are praising a recent move by IBM to protect any genetic information collected on its employees. IBM is reportedly the first major corporation to explicitly state their policy of protection regarding this type of information. I didn't realize companies were already (trying to) collect genetic information on its workers but the article mentions a case from 3 years ago that went to court:

Perhaps the best known involved a $2.2 million settlement in 2002 that the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reached with the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company. The government had sued, saying the railroad tested, or sought to test, 36 of its employees, using blood samples, without their knowledge or consent. According to testimony, the company performed the tests in the hopes of claiming that the workers' arm injuries stemmed from a rare genetic condition instead of from work-related stress on muscles and nerves. The railroad denied that it violated the law, but agreed not to use genetic tests in future medical examinations.

As the technology for genetic profiling and how to decipher it advances, we really have to keep aware of what the government and corporations are doing (or not doing) to protect our privacy.

"What I.B.M. is doing is significant because you have a big, leadership company that is saying to its workers, 'We aren't going to use genetic testing against you,' " said Arthur L. Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania medical school.

"If you want a genomic revolution," Mr. Caplan added, "then you better have policies, practices and safeguards that give people comfort and trust."