Obamacare is here. Genetic profiling has arrived at a school near you

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
10/18/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Palo Alto child kicked out of school for disease he does not have.

School officials are ordering a boy to transfer to another middle school because he as the gene for cystic fibrosis, While he has the gene for the condition, he does not actually have the disease. The school already has one other student with the disease.

This healthy young boy was kicked out of school for the offense of having a gene for a disease he does not have.

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PALO ALTO, CA (Catholic Online) - Eleven-year-old Colman Chadam was instructed to leave Jordan Middle School in Palo Alto, California, last week because of his genes. "I was sad but at the same time I was mad because I understood that I hadn't done anything wrong. It feels like I'm being bullied in a way that is not right."
Cystic fibrosis is a genetic condition that causes the body to produce very thick mucus. This mucus can clog the lungs and cause infections. Eventually, this condition proves fatal, with most victims living into their late 30's.

About 30,000 adults in the US have the disease.

Despite the fact the disease is not contagious, there is a risk of what researchers call "bacterial cross-contamination" if two people with the condition come into contact. Doctors have long advised that people with the condition stay as far apart as possible because the results can be fatal.

However, in this case, Colman does not actually have the disease, just the gene. However, another student at the school does have the illness. School officials were worried that the other student could become ill around Colman and they would then face a lawsuit.

The school says the "zero risk option" was to transfer Colman.

The family is appealing the decision, since they do not believe it is just for their child to be forced to transfer schools when he was making friends and bonding with teachers without posing any actual risk to others.

Ultimately, in an age of genetic data and record keeping, much of what is happening with the pending arrival of Obamacare, there is a new attitude of being so risk adverse that merely having a genetic proclivity towards something warrants segregation.

Down this slippery slope comes genetic profiling and a brave new world of genetically-based racism.

It is likely the school has overreacted in this case and was acting to avert a possible lawsuit, should the other child become sick. However, in trying to dodge one unlikely lawsuit, they may have caught another.

The school is required to follow due process when transferring a student against their will. The school did not use due process in this case. They have not also evaluated the true risk that Colman does not actually pose to the other child.

Of course, had Colman's parents never mentioned on nursing forms that he had the gene for the disease, none of this would have happened. However, in the coming age of indelible medical records and genetic profiling, what is happening here is merely a harbinger of things to come.

� 2012, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
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Keywords: genetic profiling, Obamacare, cystic fibrosis

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1 - 7 of 7 Comments

Judy Claar
7 months ago
Deacon Keith, Having read this article and all the responses, and not being in support of Obamacare, I really must conclude that Steve C. has made the most open believable viewpoints. One should always question the source/s from which all information comes. One's statements must be made verifiable. If they are not, how do we know that the article/s, book/s are true?

Perhaps now is the time to start checking who writes what? How verifiable they and their information are?

When I wrote for a college newspaper in journalism, you can be sure that my sources better be verifiable!

I am not accusing. Just questioning. This is not the first time that this has happened. Don't like to see so many readers voicing the opposite information I guess. Prayerful Blessings...
ps.: I did not see You Tube...I had already started writing.
Dave A
7 months ago
As previous comments have suggested, this article has absolutely nothing to do with Obamacare. It is a shame more editing does not happen before articles make it to this website. If there is any journalistic integrity left, the site will take this article down immediately - or at the least rename it.
Bob Gordon
7 months ago
This article has nothing to do with Obamcsre. I work in the healthcare field. Through Obamacare this child cannot be denied healthcare insurance nor have limitations set to the are he will receive when needed. The title to your article is grossly misleading.
William Duffy
7 months ago
I am a 72 year old male WITH CYSTIC FIBROSIS. I just don't how you could have got more mis-information on CF.
Steve
7 months ago
This U.S. midwife Hannah actually read all 1990 pages of Obamacare! Here is the truth on obamacare delivered from her! It is moving toward a single payer/ one for all system in the U.S.!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAzPZMdTaq8
DLL
7 months ago
It seems to me that if the two children with the cystic fibrosis can infect each other on contact fatally then it's a good idea to separate them. It would be a wiser decision to send the healthy one to a different school. It's a tricky issue fortunately not everybody has cystic fibrosis. Obviously genetic profiling that is discriminatory would be of concern. The school is being cautious but it seems like they're protecting the healthy child welfare. Unless I read something wrong here,it doesn't seem that the school was being that cruel to the healthy child,as they are considering the healthy child and that healthy child's welfare. The real discrimination would be to move the affected child with the active case of cystic fibrosis. In this case it seems that the school will likely have to receive a possible law suit. I think that if all parties are reasonable with each other all can easily be worked out without legal intervention. Genetic Profiling? I don't think it applies here as the issue is more a matter of life or death for 2 children with cystic fibrosis to come in contact with each other.
Steve C
7 months ago
How dare you? Who wrote this article? And who edits this web site that allows something like this to make it to print? I live with cystic fibrosis. As do the families involved in this story. It's a disease that carries with it differing levels of complication from patient to patient and whose symptoms manifest themselves in a variety of ways. I feel for this family, whose child is asymptomatic, but appears to have the disease, given the article gives the impression that he has two recessive genes. If he can pass a sweat test, then he has reason to be grateful. As a teacher living with CF, I often wonder what will happen when I come across a student who shares this condition because the recommendation of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is that patients do not interact with each other due to risk of spreading disease. I feel strongly for both of the families involved in this incident and hope that there exists a resolution that involves both parties being able to stay in the school. That all being said, what journalist decided it would be good to use this intensely personal story to make a broader point about Obamacare and genetic racism? There is no indication that Obamacare has anything to do with this story, as it is not the recommendation of President Obama but rather the CFF that patients do not spend time together. I really have to question the journalistic integrity of the writer here who would take this moment and try to scare his readers about health care and the brave new world of genetically based racism. Here's a thought, racism is already based on genetics, and had you thought for more than three seconds before you put your words to print, you would have realized that. Or maybe you did, and it just wasn't convenient for you to make your scary point. In any case, I would hope that you would have enough journalistic integrity not to use my disease and the struggle of two families to make your political statements. Shame on you.

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