See Billings, P.R. et al., “Discrimination as a Consequence of Genetic Testing,” American Journal of Human Genetics, 50 (1992): 476–82. See generally NIH-DOE Working Group on Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications of Human Genome Research, Genetic Information and Health Insurance: Report of the Task Force on Genetic Information and Insurance (NIH Pub. No. 93-3686, May 10, 1993).Google Scholar

In the insurance domain alone, analysis includes Rothenberg, K.H., “Genetic Information and Health Insurance: State Legislative Approaches,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 23 (1995): 312–19; Hudson, K.L. et al., “Genetic Discrimination and Health Insurance: An Urgent Need for Reform,” Science, 270 (1995): 391–93; Ad Hoc Committee on Genetic Testing/Insurance Issues, “Background Statement: Genetic Testing and Insurance,” American Journal of Human Genetics, 56 (1995): 327–31; Cushing, T.H., “Should There be Genetic Testing in Insurance Risk Classification?,” Defense Counsel Journal, Apr. (1993): 249–63; NIH-DOE Working Group, supra note 1; Ostrer, H. et al., “Insurance and Genetic Testing: Where Are We Now?,” American Journal of Human Genetics, 52 (1993): 565–77; O'Hara, S., “The Use of Genetic Testing in the Health Insurance Industry: The Creation of a ‘Biological Underclass’,” Southwestern University Law Review, 22 (1993): 1211–28; Murray, T.H., “Genetics and the Moral Mission of Health Insurance,” Hastings Center Report, 22, no. 6 (1992): 12–17; Obinata, N., “Genetic Screening and Insurance: Too Valuable an Underwriting Tool to be Banned from the System,” Computer & High Technology Law Journal, 8 (1992): 145–67; Gostin, L., “Genetic Discrimination: The Use of Genetically Based Diagnostic and Prognostic Tests by Employers and Insurers,” American Journal of Law & Medicine, XVII (1991): 109–44; Lowe, R., “Genetic Testing and Insurance: Apocalypse Now?,” Drake Law Review, 40 (1991): 507–32; Pokorski, R., “Genetic Screening and the Insurance Industry,” Yale journal of Biology and Medicine, 64 (1991): 53–57; and Miller, J.M., Comment, “Genetic Testing and Insurance Classification: National Action Can Prevent Discrimination Based on the ‘Luck of the Genetic Draw’,” Dickinson Law Review, 93 (1989): 729–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

See, for example, Epstein, R.A., “The Legal Regulation of Genetic Discrimination: Old Responses to New Technology,” Boston University Law Review, 74 (1994): 1–23; Smith, G.P. II Burns, T.J., “Genetic Determinism or Genetic Discrimination?,” Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy, 11 (1994): 23–61; NIH-DOE Working Group, supra note 1, at 9; Billings, et al., supra note 1; Rothstein, M.A., “Genetic Discrimination in Employment and the Americans with Disabilities Act,” Houston Law Review, 29 (1992): 23–84; and Gostin, , supra note 2. Dan Brock acknowledges that there are different understandings of “equality,” but he focuses on a different question than I: “whether equality of opportunity can be fully realized despite ... [differences] in ... genetically based cognitive ability.” Brock, D.W., “The Human Genome Project and Human Identity,” Houston Law Review, 29 (1992): At 8, 11.Google Scholar

See Roberts, D.E., “The Genetic Tie,” University of Chicago Law Review, 62 (1995): 209–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

See, for example, id.; Asch, A. Geller, G., “Feminism, Bioethics, and Genetics,” in Wolf, S.M., ed., Feminism & Bioethics: Beyond Reproduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996): 318–50.Google Scholar

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Indeed, the doctrinal effort to develop law to restrict the use of genetic information by insurers can benefit from comparison to the law curbing the use of race and sex in insurance. On the latter body of law, see, for example, Austin, R., “The Insurance Classification Controversy,” University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 131 (1983): 517–83; and Brilmayer, L. et al., “The Efficient Use of Group Averages as Nondiscrimination: A Rejoinder to Professor Benston,” University of Chicago Law Review, 50 (1983): 222–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Nelkin, Compare Lindee, , supra note 11, at 2 (“In one sense the gene is a biological structure.... But it has also become a cultural icon.... The biological gene ... has a cultural meaning independent of its precise biological properties.” (footnote omitted)).Google Scholar

See Cal. Health & Safety Code § 1374.7 (West Supp. 1995), and Cal. Ins. Code §§ 10123.3, 11512.95 (West Supp. 1995), all as amended by 1995 Cal. Leg. Serv. ch. 695 (West); Colo. Rev. Stat. § 10-3-1104.7 (1994>); Ga. Code Ann. §§ 33-54-1 to −8 (Supp. 1995); Minn. Stat. § 72A.139 (Supp. 1995); N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. ch. 141-H (1995); Ohio Rev. Code Ann. §§ 1742.42–.43, 3901.49, 3901.491, 3901.50, 3901.501 (Baldwin 1995); 1995 Or. Laws 680; and Wis. Stat. Ann. § 631.89 (West 1995). Bills have been introduced in other states. See, for example, 1995 Mass. H. 4485, 179th Gen. Ct., 1st Ann. Sess.; and 1995 Tex. H. 343, 74th Reg. Sess.);+Ga.+Code+Ann.+§§+33-54-1+to+−8+(Supp.+1995);+Minn.+Stat.+§+72A.139+(Supp.+1995);+N.H.+Rev.+Stat.+Ann.+ch.+141-H+(1995);+Ohio+Rev.+Code+Ann.+§§+1742.42–.43,+3901.49,+3901.491,+3901.50,+3901.501+(Baldwin+1995);+1995+Or.+Laws+680;+and+Wis.+Stat.+Ann.+§+631.89+(West+1995).+Bills+have+been+introduced+in+other+states.+See,+for+example,+1995+Mass.+H.+4485,+179th+Gen.+Ct.,+1st+Ann.+Sess.;+and+1995+Tex.+H.+343,+74th+Reg.+Sess.>Google Scholar

On the history, see Rothenberg, , supra note 2; Hudson, et al., supra note 2, at 392; and NIH-DOE Working Group, supra note 1, at 18.Google Scholar

See Md. Ann. Code art. 48A, § 223(b)(4) (1994); Cal. Health & Safety Code § 1374.7 (West 1990); and Cal. Ins. Code § 10123.3(a) (West 1993), § 11512.95(a) (West 1988).Google Scholar

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Hudson, et al., supra note 2, at 392. Some of the statutes indicate as much. See, for example, Colo. Rev. Stat. § 10-3-1104.7(2)(b) (“‘Genetic testing’ includes only such tests as are direct measures of ... [genetic] alterations rather than indirect manifestations thereof.”).Google Scholar

S. 1416, 104th Cong., 1st Sess. § 2(b)(3) (1995).Google Scholar

Id. § 6(a).Google Scholar

Id. § 3(5).Google Scholar

Id. § 3(4).Google Scholar

H.R. 2690, 104th Cong., 1st Sess. (1995).Google Scholar

H.R. 2748, 104th Cong., 1st Sess. § 2(a) (1995). As is similar to the prior two bills, “genetic information” is defined as “information about genes, gene products, or inherited characteristics.” Id. § 2(e)(3). “Genetic services” are then defined as “health services to obtain, assess, and interpret genetic information for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, and for genetic education and counseling.” Id. § 2(e)(4).Google Scholar

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As Nancy Kass argues, “The greatest protection for those with a genetic predisposition ... would be to return to a community-rated system.” Kass, , supra note 33, at 10.Google Scholar

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MacKinnon's critique of the term “sexism” might be construed to cast doubt on my suggestion of geneticism. However, her complaint is that “sexism” suggests the problem is merely bad treatment of women, rather than a system of dominance that seizes on gender as a means of subordination. See id. My article meets that complaint by using “geneticism” more comprehensively to embrace a system of genetic disadvantage based on supposed deviation from a fictive genetic norm.Google Scholar

See Lippman, , supra note 8, at 18–19 and n.16.Google Scholar

See Dreyfuss, Nelkin, , supra note 8, at 316–21. “Genetic essentialism posits that personal traits are predictable and permanent, determined at conception, ‘hard-wired’ into the human constitution.... [T]his ideology minimizes the importance of social context.” Id. at 320–21. Nelkin and Lindee also develop the idea of “genetic essentialism” in the DNA Mystique, supra note 11, at 2, 149–68. “Genetic essentialism reduces the self to a molecular entity, equating human beings, in all their social, historical, and moral complexity, with their genes.” Id. at 2.Google Scholar

See, for example, Kevles, D.J., “Out of Eugenics: The Historical Politics of the Human Genome,” in Kevles, D.J. Hood, L., eds., The Code of Codes: Scientific and Social Issues in the Human Genome Project (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992): 3–36. For an analysis of the link between geneticism and racism, see Roberts, , supra note 5.Google Scholar

I am grateful to Eric Juengst for raising the terminological concern that the analogue to “racists” and “sexists” cannot be “geneticists” (because we already use that to refer to certain professional specialists), and so requires a different term, perhaps “geneticizers.”Google Scholar