Genetic screening of prospective parents and of workers: some scientific and social issues

Genetic screening programs are based on assumptions and values that reflect the history of racial and social eugenics in the United States and Europe. They stigmatize individuals by shifting the focus from social, economic, and political decisions that affect the health of prospective parents, newborns, and workers to "bad genes," that is, intrapersonal factors that are given the status of "causes" of disease. Prenatal screening, at best, can help the relatively few individuals who know that their future children are at risk for a particular inherited disease or disability; it has little positive value for the average person. Workplace genetic screening has not been shown to reduce occupational disease, but it has led to employment discrimination and has drawn attention away from controlling exposures to toxic chemicals in the workplace.