Genetics and Life Insurance: Medical Underwriting and Social Policy pdf

Professor Rothstein has a joint appointment at the Brandeis School of Law and the School of Medicine. He holds the Herbert F. Boehl Chair of Law and Medicine and is the Founding Director of the Institute for Bioethics, Health Policy and Law at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. He joined the University of Louisville faculty in 2001. Professor Rothstein has concentrated his research on bioethics, genetics, health privacy, public health law, research ethics, and employment law. From 1999-2008 he served as Chair of the Subcommittee on Privacy and Confidentiality of the National Committee on Vital Health Statistics, the statutory advisory committee to the Secretary of Health and Human Services on health information policy. He is past president of the American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics. He also served as Public Health Ethics Editor for the American Journal of Public Health from 2011-2019 and writes a regular column on bioethics for the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics. Additionally, Professor Rothstein has authored 19 books and over 300 articles on his areas of research.

Genetics and Life Insurance: Medical Underwriting and Social Policy pdf by Mark Rothstein

Insurance companies routinely use an individual's medical history and family medical history in determining eligibility for life insurance; this is part of the process of medical underwriting. Insurers have also long used genetic information, often derived from family history, in underwriting. But rapid advances in gene identification and genetic testing are changing the way we look at genetic information. Should the results of genetic testing (which might identify a predisposition toward disease not related to medical history) be available to life insurance medical underwriters? Few if any life insurers currently require genetic testing, but there are no laws or regulations prohibiting its use. Genetics and Life Insurance examines the complex economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of genetic information in life insurance underwriting. The contributors are legal scholars, representatives of the life insurance industry (including an actuary and an insurance physician), a geneticist, a genetic counselor, a philosopher, and a consumer advocate. They explore all aspects of an issue that has only recently drawn the attention of policymakers and the public. The book opens with a report on the results of a public opinion poll on genetics and life insurance. Succeeding chapters present the insurer perspective, a discussion of the economics of risk selection in life insurance, background information on the process of underwriting, a scientific analysis of genetic risks and mortality rates, a philosophical discussion of fairness and genetic underwriting, the viewpoints of consumers and genetics counselors, a comparison of different international policy approaches to the issue, and a legal analysis of antitrust implications when insurers collaborate in setting standards for medical underwriting. In the final chapter the editor addresses various policy options, examining the pros and cons of each one and assessing their political feasibility.