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California’s ban on individual genetic risk assessment

The state of California is attempting to shut down direct-to-consumer genetic testing. Now, this is just bizarre. I don’t even know what to say about it, but I felt I had to condemn it on my web page because it is just so stupid. It is also so typical of monopolistic governments and their powerful, connected, establishment supporters. Here are a few excerpts from the Wired article that might help you or me make some sense out of this nonsensical policy:

“We [are] no longer tolerating direct-to-consumer genetic testing in California,” Karen Nickel, Chief of Laboratory Field Services at the health department, told members of the Clinical Laboratories Advisory Committee on June 13.

…These services are seen as the leading edge of a new type of health care in which consumers can use their genetic profile to tailor their medical and lifestyle choices. The established medical community, however, is wary of the technology arguing that the medical utility of some tests is unproven. Doctors also complain that direct-to-consumer services bypass them as the gatekeepers and analysts of medical information, which they worry could confuse consumers, not to mention cost them a billing event.
[...]
Nickel added that the state had talked with the state of New York, which sent similar letters, and looked forward to federal regulation.

While Nickel took issue with the testing business, she said that “public interest in personalized medicine” was driving the use of genetic information.

Though the health department has stated that the investigation of genetic testing companies came as a result of “multiple” consumer complaints — no specific incidents were mentioned in the call.
[...]
“If we could find out who put the bee in their bonnet, my guess it’s the medical community,” Greenspan said. “I think that the medical community doesn’t want to lose control of who orders the test.”

Well, I mean, obviously this is a blatant and counterproductive power-grab by state health regulators and “the established medical community.” They are scared of a new industry and wary of losing their long-standing control over the health care industry. So instead of offering a better product or service to the public, lowering their prices, adopting new technology, or adapting to the changing times, they lobby the State to use its violent, deadly police power to force their competitors to stop competing with them. It should be obvious that this has no relation to the general welfare of the public or the government’s concern that people’s rights are being violated. It is entirely about power and control.

People don’t know what’s best for themselves, but malinformed and disinterested politicians do… Right…

Libertarians talk a lot about the “establishment” benefiting the “power elite” and “special interests” lobbying the State to help the powerful and connected at the expense of the little guy, with the “mainstream media” cheering on the process the whole time. I often wonder if both libertarians and Statists alike get little frustrated—skeptical, even—of such slogan-riddled rhetoric and vague proclamations. “How exactly does this ‘estabishment–power elite–government’ cartel work?” they might say. “What laws benefit which people and how much, and when, and where?”

Well, here is a perfect, concrete example. One of the first and foremost reasons I started this web page with Kel was to expose such State activity as propping up the rich and powerful at the expense of the average citizen, and to explain how such oppressive regulation by the State impoverishes people by restricting mutually beneficial transactions, without actually helping or protecting anyone…except the “power elite.”

Posted in Medicine, Power elite, Science