유전자정보의 보험법적 문제

Abstract

Recently, the rapid development of bio-medical technology has made it possible to enjoy the quality life such as interpreting gene information and treating various incurable diseases, and forecasting the future incidence possibility and taking appropriate measures on it, etc. On the other hand, the interpretation of the gene information may cause personal discrimination in the areas of insurance, employment, education, etc. and invasion of privacy due to characteristics of gene information. Hence, countries prohibit the gene discrimination in the insurance and so on. However, in the light of the characteristics of insurance systems operated by the principle of large numbers, the uniform prohibition of the gene discrimination in the insurance contract relationship might result in various legal problems such as a problem of adverse selection.With the recognition of this problem, this study has examined the legislation cases of each country relating to both the insurance contracts and gene information and several legal issues possibly caused in the life insurance contracts. The problems have been studied in detail as follows: (1) in the case of retaining a certain gene with the high disease incidence possibility, the problem of validity of an insurance contract with the disease covered (2) in the case of executing an insurance contract, the problems of whether the gene information should be subject to duty of disclosure and whether gene information can be included in a questionnaire as the notification item, and (3) in the case of obligating an individual to notify his or her gene information, the problem of invading his or her privacy. In conclusion, even though satisfying strict requirements might limit the use of gene information in the insurance contract, the establishment of stronger countermeasures is needed to protect individual privacy.