Link to Art (xray-lefthand)

 

VRML project (p4:12)

 

UNEMPLOYMENT AT ALL TIME LOW
DNA Charting Disqualifies 60% of Workers


    In the spring of 1999, Iceland was the first country to publicly gather the genetic code of its entire population, to sell to drug companies and other "research" institutions.

http://www.iquestproductions.com/mendelhigh/lib-iceland.html
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/biotech/iceland/press.html
http://www.gene.ch/gentech/1999/Jan-Feb/msg00031.html

Supposedly this is for study because of the country's unique genetic homogeneousness, but the ramifications are hardly mistakeable. When a health insurance company sees that you have a genetic predispositon towards a heart attack (say 40% likelihood), do you think they will sell you insurance? But don't worry "steps are taken to guarantee everyone's privacy."
    Is it really plausible that genetic testing/records will begin and end with Iceland? It is quite likely that most of our governments already have extensive genetic records of their populations...

Opposition to Iceland's sale of citizen genome information to private corporations

Genetic Resources

    A surprising hollywood film, "GATTACA" deals precisely with this issue, discrimination of humans not by such shallow categories of skin color, sex or sexual preference such as today, but your very genetic code. Racked up and measured according to the vague human interpretations of the sperm-egg chromosome combination that produced what later became you, the thinking, feeling human entity that has learned so much, but to no avail. They got your record.   Gattaca info

 

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