First genetic discrimination claim since US ban

May 2, 2010

10:44 30 April 2010

Health

Science In Society

Ewen Callaway, reporter

In what may be the first US case of genetic discrimination since Congress banned the practice in 2008, a Connecticut woman claims she lost her job because she has a gene that predisposes her to breast cancer.

She and her lawyers filed a complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.

They allege that her employer, a utility company called MXenergy, violated a new federal law that protects people against genetic discrimination by employers and insurance companies, reports the Associated Press (AP).

It is probably the first time that a complaint of genetic discrimination has been filed since the Genetic Non-Discrimination Act (GINA) became law in 2008 and went into effect last year.

Pamela Fink, a 39-year-old woman from Fairfield, Connecticut, alleges that she lost her job at MXenergy after she told the company that she had a mutation in a gene called BRCA2 that is linked to a greatly increased risk of breast cancer.

As a precautionary measure, Fink had both her breasts removed - a common measure taken by women positive for some mutations in BRCA2 and its sister gene BRCA1. When she returned to MXenergy after surgery, the company laid her off.

"Part of what she is hoping by going public is that employers will get the message that you can't do this - that you can't use someone's genetic history against them and that individuals won't, out of fear, avoid the advantages of genetic testing," her lawyer told AP.

MXenergy spokesman Todd Miller "'emphatically and categorically' denies the allegations, but has a policy not to discuss personnel matters and will not comment further", according to AP.

Writing on the site Genomics Law Report, Dan Vorhaus, a biotechnology lawyer, suggests that if the company settles, the terms won't be made public. If it doesn't, the case could give a signal as to how the federal government will enforce GINA. "Either way, this is a reminder to employers and employees alike that GINA, after more than a decade spent languishing in Congress, is now the law," he writes.