ELSIcon2022 Panel: Voluntary Genetic Testing in the Workplace: An ELSI Analysis

ELSIcon2022 • Panel Session 14 • June 2, 2022

J. Scott Roberts, Anya Prince, Debra Mathews, Wendy Uhlmann

Over 150 million people in the US receive their health care through employer-sponsored health plans. A growing number of employers are offering voluntary workplace genetic testing (wGT) as part of their health and wellness benefits. Such services could identify modifiable health risks in employees and thereby promote disease prevention, but they also raise concerns about genetic privacy and workplace discrimination. The proposed panel examines the ethical, legal, social, and policy implications of genetic testing in the workplace. It features an interdisciplinary team of experts - representing fields including human genetics, genetic counseling, law, ethics, and health psychology - who are actively collaborating on a large National Institutes of Health-funded research project in this area. The panel will report on preliminary findings from this project and will consist of three individual presentations, each focused on a different aspect of wGT: 1) an historical and legal perspective, 2) an analysis of current US employer practices regarding wGT; and 3) employees' views on and experiences with wGT. These presentations will be followed by a moderated question-and-answer session with the audience.