Kious Brent M
University of California, 321 Dodd Hall, 405 Hilgard, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1451, USA.
J Med Philos. 2010 Apr;35(2):86-100. doi: 10.1093/jmp/jhq005. Epub 2010 Feb 24.
The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 prohibits most forms of discrimination on the basis of genetic information in health insurance and employment. The findings cited as justification for the act, the almost universal political support for it, and much of the scholarly literature about genetic discrimination, all betray a confusion about what is really at issue. They imply that genetic discrimination is wrong mainly because of genetic exceptionalism: because some special feature of genetic information makes discrimination on the basis thereof wrong. I suggest, to the contrary, that the best arguments against genetic discrimination assume that health care is an entitlement. I do this by examining two different exceptionalist arguments for genetic nondiscrimination, showing that they do not furnish good reasons for prohibiting genetic discrimination unless one supposes that health care is an entitlement.
2008年的《基因信息非歧视法案》禁止在医疗保险和就业领域基于基因信息进行的大多数形式的歧视。被引述作为该法案正当理由的调查结果、几乎普遍的政治支持以及许多关于基因歧视的学术文献，都暴露出对真正问题所在的混淆。它们暗示基因歧视是错误的，主要是因为基因例外论：由于基因信息的某些特殊特征使得基于此的歧视是错误的。相反，我认为反对基因歧视的最佳论据假定医疗保健是一项应享权利。我通过审视两种不同的支持基因非歧视的例外论论据来做到这一点，表明除非假定医疗保健是一项应享权利，否则它们并不能提供禁止基因歧视的充分理由。
