A government panel issued a report Thursday calling for
consistent policies and laws to protect the privacy of patients
who submit to whole genome sequencing and to ensure the data
security. The tests provide a blueprint of each person's genes
and offer insights into health and disease processes that could
bring about new treatments and cures. As the costs of sequencing
have become affordable, dropping from millions of dollars to a
thousand dollars, the tests are expected to become routine among
physicians and researchers. The panel recommends officials
create laws at the state and federal level to prevent the data
from falling into the hands of insurance companies, employers
and others who could use it as a form of discrimination, to
ensure patients are told when being tested, and to hold
collectors, storers and users of the information accountable for
any breaches of data. The report was done by The Presidential
Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. The commission is
an advisory panel of leaders in