Civil Protection Of Genetic Information Privacy

Genes are the material basis and core function of physical growth and development, genetic variance, metabolism. Genetic information reveals all the secrets of life from the level of molecule. And then people can judge and predict some internal and essential information(such as health status and problems, life expectancy, intelligence) from the genetic information. Because of the development of genetic technology, the great value and the use in society of the genetic information are exposed. People have applied the genetic technology to many fields, such as employment, insurance, proving identification, medical treatment, scientific research and so on. In addition, people can get the gene samples of other people easily. For example, the hair on the carpet and skin particles on the doorknob. However, our country doesn't pay enough attention to personal genetic information privacy.Genetic information has the characteristics of both personal information and privacy. Because of its special characteristics, it not only becomes the sensitive information but also has a unique feature in the protection of privacy. Due to the lack of Act on the Protection of Personal Information, people have to depend on the Right to Privacy in order to protect genetic information. However, the Right to Privacy in our country can not satisfy the requirements that adding and resetting different rights according to the different stages of individual information processing. Therefore, the protection mechanism of genetic information privacy should be established.With the exception of the introduction and the conclusion, there are four parts in this paper.The first part: to analyze the status quo of protection of genetic information privacy in our country, and then find the direction of protecting the genetic information. Our country should insist on viewing the Act on the Protection of Personal Information as the basic legal system, and our country also have to establish the protection mechanism of genetic information privacy at the same time.The second part: firstly,to clarify the relationship between gene and genetic information, and then point out the special characteristics of genetic information as personal information; secondly, to point out that the genetic information has the characteristics of privacy; thirdly, to point out the special aspects of protecting genetic information privacy.The third part: to sum up the experience of protecting genetic information privacy outside our country(such as international organization, America, Australia, France and Japan).The fourth part: to provide the suggestions for civil protection of genetic information privacy, including establishing the rights of genetic information privacy, the obligations of genetic information privacy and standards of gene testing and setting up an institution to put the supervision into practice.