Cliff Stearns: “I believe the issue of genetic privacy is of the utmost importance. With new forms of genetic testing, we will be able…”

“I believe the issue of genetic privacy is of the utmost importance. With new forms of genetic testing, we will be able to test an individual's likelihood of contracting a number of diseases. The possibilities that arise that employers and health insurance can use this information to discriminate is out there. This is a civil rights issue and a civil rights issue we should be concerned with. People who are already at risk due to their genetic makeup should not have to worry about the additional hardship of losing their job or health insurance. The Republican Congress and the bill we passed yesterday included for the first time in human history the words 'genetic information.' That is part of the bill that the gentleman from Illinois, Dennis Hastert, prepared as special task master to bring health care to the House floor, and we now have the words 'genetic information' so that no one can be discriminated against because of genetic information. And I think all of our colleagues and all of the people across this country should realize for the first time in human history, we now have those words in the bill and we are making a start.”