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Republicans Are Dismantling the Law That Protects Your DNA from Your Boss

Genes, please.

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, or GINA, was a unicorn in the divided climate of US politics. GINA made it illegal for employers and other groups to discriminate against people based on their genetics, and to require or even  ask for genetic tests, or to hand over the results of previous tests in many contexts. Signed into law by George W. Bush in 2008, it passed with a near-unanimous vote of 414-1 in Congress.

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Now, Republicans in Congress are pushing a new bill that would gut some of GINA's strongest protections for workers, leading experts to worry that employees may be put in situations where they will have to show their boss their entire genome—or else.

One can imagine a future scenario where an employer might not want to hire someone to be an actuary because they show a genetic predisposition to developing Alzheimer's. But as any geneticist will tell you, DNA is not destiny.

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