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A few weeks into sixth grade, Colman Chadam had to leave school because of his DNA.
The situation, odd as it may sound, played out like this. Colman has genetic markers for cystic fibrosis, and kids with the inherited lung disease can't be near each other because they're vulnerable to contagious infections. Two siblings with cystic fibrosis also attended Colman's middle school in Palo Alto, California in 2012. So Colman was out, even though he didn't actually have the disease, according to a lawsuit that his parents filed against the school district. The allegation? Genetic discrimination.
Yes, genetic discrimination. Get used to those two words together, because they're likely to become a lot more common. With DNA tests now cheap and readily available, the number of people getting tests has gone way up—along with the potential for discrimination based on the results. When Colman's school tried to transfer him based on his genetic status, the lawsuit alleges, the district violated the Americans With Disabilities Act and Colman's First Amendment right to privacy. "This is the test case," says the Chadam's lawyer, Stephen Jaffe.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday February 03 2016, @09:12PM
That, in turn, led doctors to discover that he carried some genetic markers associated with cystic fibrosis. His markers are no guarantee of a disease though, and Colman never developed any cystic fibrosis.
Its like running genetic tests on Moslem immigrants in Cologne and if they have genetic markers for arab-ness, that means they're susceptible to being arabs, which means they would be more likely to rape the german women, so we should kick them out purely for genetic marker reasons, not because of who they are, or what they've actually done or not done. Pre-crime enforcement, more or less. This is assuming the german authorities don't want german women to be raped, which of course is false as has been demonstrated, which complicates the example.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 03 2016, @10:03PM
"moslem" ey... ?
(Score: 2) by darnkitten on Thursday February 04 2016, @01:00AM
Probably a generational thing--When I was younger, "Moslem" was in all the textbooks I ever read. For that matter, some of the older (usu. British) books I read used "Musselman" and other books from the late 1700's used "Mohammedan" or "Mohametan."
(Score: 3, Funny) by Alfred on Thursday February 04 2016, @02:43PM
Don't they like make applesauce or something? My racist heritage will demand I find a new brand now.
(Score: 2) by compro01 on Thursday February 04 2016, @02:49AM
"Moslem" is a valid romanization of the Arabic word, though it is generally considered to be outdated.