WHAT IS IT?

The Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Scheme Grant has funded the Genetic Discrimination Project for the period 2002 to 2004. The Project involves researchers from three Australian institutions and aims to undertake an empirical study of genetic discrimination in Australia.

The study will investigate genetic discrimination across the following three key perspectives:

• consumers (PROJECT A)
• third parties (PROJECT B)
• the legal system (PROJECT C)

There will also be a “verification” phase of the project (PROJECT D) in which individuals who report incidents of discriminatory practice will be asked for explicit consent to allow the research team to follow up the alleged incident with the third party in question, for purposes of verification. This is an important new aspect of research in this area and has not been achieved before.

AIMS OF THE GENETIC DISCRIMINATION PROJECT

The aims of the Genetic Discrimination Project are:

• to advance the existing knowledge base, both nationally and internationally
• to establish comprehensive baseline data for further evaluative research
• to generate important outcomes for each of the three sectors, as well as a comprehensive overview of this important new Australian social issue
• to examine the social and legal implications of genetic discrimination in Australia to offer recommendations informing the development of appropriate law

• July 2003
• May 2005