Gene tests 'to mean higher insurance premiums'

Dr Richard Ashcroft, professor of biomedical ethics at the University of London, said there was a risk that people would be discriminated against on the basis of a poor understanding of genetics.

The concerns come a day after scientists announced they had discovered a series of genes linked to common diseases affecting 20million Britons.

Companies offering life, critical illness or health insurance say they should be able to use genetic information on these risks, otherwise more people than expected may claim and they would go bankrupt.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, Dr Ashcroft warned: "It is important to note how genetic information can be misunderstood, or its importance overestimated, and therefore used in discriminatory ways.

"For example, if a woman were to test positive for a mutation in the BRCA1 [breast cancer] gene, a naive insurance salesperson might think that she represented a poor risk for life insurance, even though the actuarial advice might be that this made little difference to her life expectancy.

"The point that is often neglected is that what is theoretically justified may be undermined by the less than perfect behaviour of people working under pressure."

But Soren Holm, professor of medical ethics at Cardiff Law School, said there was no reason for genetic information to be withheld from insurance companies because they already use other information such as body mass index, cholesterol concentration and the results of physical examinations.

Also writing in the BMJ, he said: "Genetic information is not special.

"It is not inherently more specific, predictive, sensitive, or private than other kinds of health information."

At present, insurance companies must apply to the Genetics and Insurance Committee for permission to use genetic information.

So far they are allowed to use information only on Huntington's Disease, but they plan to apply to use information on breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2.