In a strong blow to the chances of a dystopia like GATTACA, the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act has unanimously passed the United States Senate after apparently minor changes made to capitulate to Tom Coburn (because, of course, unlike Chris Dodd's hold on the FISA bill, Coburn's hold matters)
One of Senator Coburn’s main concerns was that the bill might subject employers to civil rights lawsuits stemming from disputes over medical coverage. ... "We would have created a trial lawyers’ bonanza," he said.
Senator Coburn, a medical doctor, had called for a "firewall" between the employer and insurance sections of the bill. "We withstood all the criticism we got from lots of people, and now we got it fixed," he said.
This bill prohibits discrimination in health insurance and employment based on genetic information.
Since it passed unanimously in the Senate and with only 3 NAYs in the House (fake libertarian R0n P4v1 and 2 other extremists), I expect the House to pass the minorly amended version soon, at which point it will go to Bush, who will likely sign it.
I of course thought of Daily Kos funny man when I saw that the bill had finally passed the Senate. See JeffLieber's wife Holly Long is a marfanoid.
Marfan syndrome is caused by mutations in the FBN1 gene on chromosome 15, which encodes a glycoprotein called fibrillin-1, a component of the extracellular matrix.
...
Although there are no unique signs or symptoms of Marfan syndrome, the constellation of long limbs, dislocated lenses, and aortic root dilation is sufficient to make the diagnosis with confidence. There are more than thirty other clinical features that are variably associated with the syndrome most involving the skeleton, skin, and joints.There is a great deal of clinical variability even within families that carry the identical mutation.
In other words, this seems like the kind of (semi-common; 1 in 5000 Americans has it) genetic disorder that, in the milder cases [in more severe cases it is very noticeable and one can tell without access to genetic information].
And Jeff might be nervous about, say, having his Barammobama and tatue-loving son screened for Marfan syndrome if the results could make it hard for him to get employed in the future.
This bill would change that.