[ACLU-NM] ACLU Applauds Governor in Signing Genetic Protection Bill

[Kimberly Lavender]

              American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico

              Media Relations Office

              PO Box 80915

              Albuquerque, NM 87198; Tel: 505-266-5915

              Fax: 505-266-5916

              www.aclu-nm.org




   NEWS







  ACLU Applauds Governor in Signing Genetic Protection Bill


  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

  Thursday, April 7, 2005

  CONTACT:
  Peter Simonson, Executive Director, ACLU of New Mexico at 505-266-4622



  SANTA FE – Governor Bill Richardson signed a genetic protection bill into
law yesterday which will ban discrimination based on a person’s genetic code
in employment, housing, and credit.



  Representative Danice Picraux sponsored H B 183: The Genetic Privacy Act,
which sailed through the House with a vote of 65-0 and the Senate with a
vote of 38-0.  This win is a culmination of years of commitment and advocacy
for genetic protection on behalf of Representative Picraux.



  “We applaud the New Mexico State Legislature and the Governor for
recognizing the importance of providing safeguards against genetic
discrimination by passing this cutting edge legislation,” said ACLU of New
Mexico’s Executive Director Peter Simonson. “The genetic revolution has a
vast range of potential implications for American life.  New reproductive
technologies are profoundly affecting the lives of women and children and
represent new categories of reproductive choices, and biotechnology is
transforming health care, insurance, employment, and the criminal justice
system, and raises profound legal issues associated with genetic
discrimination, privacy and intellectual property,” added Simonson.

  The ACLU nationally and in New Mexico is a leading advocate for strong
privacy laws.  On August 21, 2004, the ACLU of New Mexico hosted a
Data-Privacy Conference in Santa Fe that sparked a groundswell of interest
on privacy issues in our state.

  A coalition of organizations, led by the ACLU, committed to protecting
privacy supported several bills this legislative session.  Some of these
groups include the New Mexico AARP, BioLaw Group, Foundation for Open
Government, League of Women Voters, New Mexico Press Association and others.

  This law recognizes that it is a violation of civil liberties for
employers, landlords, or financial institutions to base important life
decision of an individual upon genetic traits of a particular race,
religion, alienage, sex or other group because it would have disparate
impact upon that group

  Decisions should be made on the basis of individual ability and character,
not on the basis of stereotypes or generalizations about the groups to which
an individual belongs. The fact that some, or even a majority, of the
members of a particular group have a particular genetic trait does not mean
that all members of the group have that trait.



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  Kimberly Lavender aclunmpr at comcast.net

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