Genetic information: Important but not “exceptional”

Much legislation dealing with the uses of genetic information could becriticised for exceptionalising genetic information over other types of informationpersonal to the individual. This paper contends that genetic exceptionalism cloudsthe issues, and precludes any real debate about the appropriate uses of geneticinformation. An alternative to “genetically exceptionalist” legislation is to “legislatefor fairness”. This paper explores the “legislating for fairness” approach, andconcludes that it demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of both howlegislation is drafted, and how it is interpreted. The uncomfortable conclusion isthis: policy-makers and legislators must tackle head-on the difficult policy questionsconcerning what should and should not be done with genetic information. Only byconfronting this crucial issue will they achieve a workable legislative solution to theproblems caused by genetic informatio