Genetic testing is a rapidly expanding field, leading to advancements in medicine and a further understanding of heredity. But genetic testing and the resulting advances in medicine and technology have a dark side-misappropriation and commercial exploitation of individuals’ genetic information without permission or compensation. Current Florida law falls short of providing the protections necessary to deter misuse of genetic information, potentially impeding progress in genetic study.
This Article examines the history and importance of genetic-information protection, describing such abuses as forced sterilization, racial and employment discrimination based on unauthorized genetic testing, and commercial exploitation without the genetic-information donor’s knowledge or permission. This Article then details how Florida’s current statutory protections, even paired with the protections of the federally mandated Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, are not enough to protect the rights of potential genetic-information contributors. Finally, drawing on Florida’s right-of-publicity statute and the common law principle of license coupled with an interest, this Article proposes an amended Florida genetic-information statute that would create a property right in one’s own genetic information and provide the civil penalties and causes of action needed to create effective genetic-information protection.