Dorrell rejects new laws to cover genetic testing

CHARLES ARTHUR

Science Correspondent

Genetic testing and its uses will not be covered by any new legislation, the Government has decided. Instead it will rely on self-regulation by industry and on existing health regulations, said the Secretary of State for Health, Stephen Dorrell.

The decision would lead to self-regulation mirroring that of the City's finance industry after deregulation in 1986. There, self-regulation led to a number of scandals, such as the Barlow Clowes fraud, which went undetected for years.

Concerns over genetic tests focus on their potential abuse. Such tests can show that somebody is liable to diseases such as cancer or inherited ailments which might not show up for years. Insurance companies, for example, might insist on such tests before giving life cover, or companies might make them compulsory before offering people jobs, leading to a "genetic underclass" who are fit, yet whose genes suggest possible problems.

Mr Dorrell held out an olive branch to MPs and scientists who wanted new laws to cover such potential abuses, by saying he would look at the case for an administrative body.

However, scientists are unhappy about the suggestion. "I think it's important that this new committee should deal with policy on the possible eugenic abuses that might arise from genetic testing," said David Shapiro, of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.

Mr Dorrell appeared yesterday before the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology. Last year the committee published a report on human genetics, suggesting new statutory powers to ensure that genetic testing was not abused. The committee had called for a statutory body which would oversee the use of patents and testing in all sorts of fields.

But in January, Mr Dorrell rejected all the report's findings, a decision which was unpopular with the committee and many scientists.

Yesterday he told the committee that he was "prepared to examine the case for an administrative, rather than regulatory, body with a co-ordinating role" and that he felt the insurance industry was "taking seriously worries about use of genetic information for insurance purposes."

A spokeswoman for the Association of British Insurers said: "We would be confident that voluntary policing would be dealt with successfully."

Professor Martin Bobrow, a genetics expert at the Cambridge Addenbrooke Hospital, backed Mr Dorrell's reluctance to bring in new laws.

"Laws are at their absolute worst when they try to cover fast-changing areas of technology," he said.