Well we can’t confess to know much about the interaction between law, disability and genetics but thanks to the internet there are some interesting resources for this issue, and it’s the type of issue that may have major legal ramifications in the future.
Will employers in the future possibly rely on genetic testing to ascertain whether an employee might be susceptible to an illness which could constitute a disability issue ? What would the law make of that ?
At present the law is silent on the issues of genetics and disability law but it is likley to be only a matter of time before the issue becomes important, with increased medical advances, cloning and screening already available for many genetic conditions.
Fortunately, some far cleverer people than us are ahead of the game on this issue, so below re some resources which you may be interested in checking out :-
- A particularly good resource on the issue of insurance issues related to disability and genetics. This also deals with the interesting issue of whether genetic testing could be relevant in safety critical job roles
Another interesting part of this debate relates to pensions – the costs of employee pensions are a big drain on bigger companies and genetic information would be of great interest to many of these employers but this also comes with a great many dangers, for obvious reasons. A good resource on the way this issue is currently dealt with by one of the biggest insurers, Legal & General can be found here. This shows that there is a clear code of conduct at the present time but already the issue of genetics is a factor for insurers in that for certain potentially devastating (and very expensive claims from the insurers perspective) genetic testing can be requested, although not required. A refusal to undergo or disclose certain conditions may lead to a refusal of insurance such as life cover.
We hope that this page has been of some use to you. We will update it as we find more good resources and in the meantime, thanks to the sponsors of this page, www.checkfraud.co.uk together with experts in UK law and finally another excellent legal advice resource. Thanks guys for your support, it’s greatly appreciated.