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  3. In 2010, Pamela Fink, an employee of a Connecticut energy company, made a new kind of discrimination claim: she charged that she

In 2010, Pamela Fink, an employee of a Connecticut energy company, made a new kind of discrimination claim: she charged that she

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问题     In 2010, Pamela Fink, an employee of a Connecticut energy company, made a new kind of discrimination claim: she charged that she had been fired because she carries genes that predispose her to cancer. Fink quickly became the public face for the cutting edge of civil rights: genetic discrimination.
    The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, which was passed out of concern for just such cases in the wake of huge advances in genetics testing, took effect in late 2009. GINA, as it is known, makes it illegal for employers to fire or refuse to hire workers based on their "genetic information"— including genetic tests and family history of disease. GINA doesn’t just apply to employers; health-insurance companies can be sued for using genetic information to set rates or even just for investigating people’s genes.
    The numbers of genetic-discrimination complaints will almost certainly increase greatly in coming years, for the reason that, as biological science advances, there is likely to be even more genetic information available about people. Even though this sort of medical information should remain private, employers and insurance companies will have strong financial incentives to get access to it—and to use it to avoid people who are most likely to get sick.
    When genetic-discrimination claims start showing up in the courts in significant numbers, they are likely to get a sympathetic hearing. There are two major reasons that so many people—even congressional Republicans who are highly skeptical of civil rights laws—like GINA. First, there is the kind of discrimination it is aimed at: penalizing people for strands of DNA and RNA that they inherited from their parents through no fault of their own. In general, our society has decided to protect people for qualities that are " immutable" that is, something about them that is impossible or, at least, very difficult to change.
    So we make it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, skin color and sex. On the other hand, we generally do not protect people who are not hired because they lack a high school diploma or because they wear a beard. Our response to those people is that if you want the job you should get more education or shave. Genes are a classic immutable characteristic: outside of some complicated medical procedures, we’re pretty much stuck with the genes we were born with.
    The second major reason genetic-cliscrimination laws are popular is that this is a kind of bias everyone feels they could be exposed to. None of us has perfect genes—and for the most part, we have no idea what is lurking in our DNA and RNA. Our genes are complex enough that we all have some negative information Hooded in there—and none of us wants to lose a job or be denied insurance over it. When juries begin to hear these cases, they are far more likely to identify with the plaintiffs than with the companies that discriminate. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be plenty of companies looking to benefit from genetic information, but if they use it, they may well have to pay.
Which of the following statements about Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) is true?
选项 A、It is Pamela Fink’s case that prompts the enactment of this act.
B、It prohibits genetic tests which identifies those predisposed to specific disease.
C、It makes it illegal to discriminate against employees or applicants because of genetic information.
D、The objective of it is to prevent companies from disclosing employees’ genetic information for economic gains.
答案C
解析 作者在第一段提到了美国第一起基因歧视索赔案件。案件当事人帕梅拉.菲克控诉公司因自己携带致癌基因而解雇了她。案件发生时间为2010年。这个时间晚于美国《反基因歧视法》颁布的时间，美国早在2009年就开始执行《反基因歧视法》。因此，[A]选项错误，说是帕梅拉.菲克的案子促使了这部法规的颁布，时间上不合逻辑。《反基因歧视法》规定禁止雇主根据员工的基因测试、家族病史等“基因信息”解雇或拒绝雇用员工。但是《反基因歧视法》并没有禁止“基因信息”的获取，也就是基因测试。[B]选项错误。[C]选项完整地表达了《反基因歧视法》的内涵，为正确答案。[D]选项错误，公司是《反基因歧视法》主要针对的对象，但是并不是针对公司泄露员工基因信息(本身公司也不太可能拥有员工基因信息)，而是针对公司基于员工基因信息而不录取或者解雇员工的行为。
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